The match between Kortrijk and Anderlecht caused a lot of discussion regarding refereeing. The refereeing department had its work cut out for it.
Even more than the exclusion of Joao Silva, it was the goal scored by Anderlecht which brought Yves Vanderhaeghe off his hinges. The Kortrijk coach claimed that during a free kick converted by Thorgan Hazard, the KV wall was obstructed by Anderlecht… who had no right to stay around.
Indeed, in the point on free kicks of the laws of the game applied by the Belgian Union this season, we can read: “If the defending team forms a wall of three or more players, the players of the attacking team must stay at least one meter from this wall until the ball is in play.
The intervention of Jonathan Lardot in Under Review was therefore eagerly awaited. A particularly thorny case for the boss of Belgian referees: “I cannot say 100% that the wall was not one meter away” he admits, on behalf of the refereeing department.
-A gray area?
The former referee explains: “The advice we could give to the referee is to be clear about the distance from the wall. But now I cannot judge, if we are talking about the real wall. If we look at the two players from Kortrijk who are next to the others, they are not part of the wall.”
Lardot relies on the fact that to be able to speak of a wall, there must be at least three players: “It is clearly stipulated in the regulations. If two players are placed, it will not be considered a wall.” In the images, it appears that the Anderlecht residents in question are located between the wall of Kortrijk and what we would describe as a low wall, made up of two bricks. An accelerated masonry course which does not allow us to say whether the Brussels residents are indeed interfering on the main wall.
