A red card on a phone. I read it in the NOS (the Dutch public broadcaster). I put the paper down. I picked it up again.
In the Uruguayan Cup, during Nacional-Rentistas, referee Eduardo Varela showed the yellow and red cards on a digital device. Smartphone format. After a little over an hour, striker Nahuel Gelos became the first player sent off with a digital red card. He enters history through a screen. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing.
In 1980, the referee had a pocket. In the pocket, a card. The card was red in the morning, red in the evening, red in the pouring rain. He raised it. The player left. Nobody asked for the code.
The Uruguayan device does more. The referee notes the substitutions, the goals, the penalties on it, and keeps track of who has been booked. Everything goes straight into the federation’s systems. In my day, the referee wrote on the back of a sheet, and the sheet arrived when it arrived. The score didn’t change because of it.
Then came Defensor Sporting against Plaza Colonia. The test had to be halted. Sunlight stopped the spectators seeing the colour of the card. The sun. It has lit stadiums forever. It had never stopped anyone seeing a card.
According to the NOS, Diego de la Pena said: “It’s a project that can still be improved.” He added: “Live, it looked a lot better than on television. The challenge we now face is to improve it for the whole audience.” I read a frankness I respect.
Silly question, but does the plastic card have a battery?
No. It’s actually its main quality.
The developer, REFe, has been working with the Uruguayan federation for a few years. It hopes CONMEBOL (South America’s football confederation), then FIFA, will adopt it. Note that I’m not against progress. I’m against this progress. Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: NOS.
