Referee boss Reinold Wiedemeijer is not happy with the performance of referee Martin van den Kerkhof and VAR arbitrator Robin Hensgens. The duo went between sc Heerenveen on Speed (1-2) fouled twice.
In the 55th minute, Van den Kerkhof and Hensgens were wrong for the first time. The former then changed the ball’s direction, allowing Vitesse to make it 1-1. Van den Kerkhof actually had to stop the game and give a referee ball. The arbitrator did not do that, and the VAR did not intervene either. “This is entirely up to the referee”, Wiedemeijer tells This Was The Weekend about the situation. “He had to whistle, he knows that and he admitted it.”
“The VAR could of course have intervened, but it started to have doubts,” continues Wiedemeijer. “He was like: what is happening here now? He just lets play continue, isn’t this a promising attack? The referee said on the field that there were still a few stations in between. It is of course crystal clear that you have to whistle here as a referee. The VAR has been misled, I think.”
Fifteen minutes later, Vitesse seemed entitled to a penalty kick, after a handball from Sven van Beek. Van den Kerkhof and Hensgens again did not intervene. Wiedemeijer thinks that the duo is still bothered by this. “Maybe they still don’t feel good about this. They don’t do this on purpose, they want to do it right. But that didn’t work out.”
