“They are not well intentioned”, the hot moments captured by the referee’s microphone
During the match of the 34th day of Ligue 1 this Saturday between Saint-Etienne and Monaco (1-4), the referee, Bastien Dechepy, of the meeting was equipped with a microphone provided by the broadcaster Prime Video.
Referee of the Ligue 1 meeting on Saturday between Saint-Etienne and Monaco, won by ASM (4-1), Bastien Dechepy was equipped with a microphone. The innovation was made possible by the will of the broadcaster Prime Video, which had already tried the experiment last February, and that of the LFP.
Prime Video published several excerpts this Sunday, where Bastien Dechepy explains his various decisions to the players but also to the VAR. From the eighth minute, the man with the whistle indicated to the video assistance that there had been no penalty for a potential foul on Denis Bouanga, who fell after contact with Benoît Badiashile. “There is the ball, there is a mess Mika (Lesage, in charge of VAR editor’s note), but for me it is not punishable”, explains Depechy.
At the first goal of the game, scored by Wissam Ben Yedder (23rd), Bastien Dechepy asks his assistants to be “vigilant about the celebration”. At the same time, Denis Bouanga comes to demand explanations for a previous action: “Can I talk to you? The free kick there, he hits with his hand!”. “Yes there is a hand, I agree with you, replies the referee. On the other hand, the arm is like that and it is completely accidental, there is no gesture. The arm is really glued to the body, it’s natural.”
“He is pushed but there are buts”, confirms Dechepy on the action of Kevin Volland (25th) for the second goal. For the reduction of the score of Pascal Dupraz’s team, Wahbi Khazri scored from the penalty spot (40th). “For me Mika, it’s not just the ball,” says the referee to the VAR, who assumes his decision against the Monegasques, ensuring that the video confirms the decision. : “Find me an angle where I clearly see a fault on the green player. I have the impression that with the second leg, he removes the supporting leg. Penalty confirmed”, can we hear in the cabin .
The match interrupted for 35 minutes
Just before the break, the match was interrupted for jets of smoke on the lawn. “We have to bring the players back to safety here”, asks the delegate. Bastien Dechepy then speaks to the fourth referee: “Nico, are you taking the time?”. “We interrupt. They will make a microphone announcement. And we will resume,” he then told captain Wissam Ben Yedder.
Bastien Dechepy also had to manage Wahbi Kahzi, unhappy to have taken a yellow card and who came to complain about a fault by Wissam Ben Yedder, guilty according to him of the same intervention. “Come see me, Mr. Khazri! Can I talk to you? Now we’ll move on. I put it on you, now it’s like this. Whether you like it or not, it’s mis. Now what I want is to keep you until the end of the match. So don’t come chasing me!
Khazri was not the only one to complain about the refereeing decisions, like Ryad Boudebouz: “Volland and Golovin, they put a lot of soles and it’s… I think, moreover, that they don’t have good intentions. It’s a bit of a bad guy, they come, they put stuff in… Especially Golovin, he likes to put some punches.” Understanding, Dechepy replies: “I put my team on alert on that for the second period, ok? Trust us.”
The meeting will then be interrupted again for new jets of smoke (67th). “We warned once for that, there’s a second! If you take something like that on the head, it’s dangerous. That’s why we go to the locker room. It’s the protocol.” After 35 minutes of stoppage of play, the match was finally able to end well.
As soon as it acquired its rights, Amazon had asked the LFP to be able to carry out such an experiment, with the desire “to improve the quality of the retransmission” and “to help understand the arbitration decisions”