Author: Vishwajit Sawant
In a disappointing turn of events, Botafogo suffered their second consecutive defeat in the Campeonato Brasileiro, losing
1-0 to Atlético-MG
. The defeat was marred by controversial decisions by the match officials, which led to frustration for the Botafogo team. Coach Bruno Lage and executive director André Mazzuco expressed their dissatisfaction with the annulment of Diego Costa’s goal, intensifying concerns about VAR decisions in the league.
Mazzuco didn’t mince his words, highlighting his irritation with the inconsistencies of the refereeing, declaring: “Unfortunately, once again we have to come here, and that gets tiring. We saw a capital, unacceptable error by the referees. We had a similar situation with Flamengo, where a goal against Marlon wasn’t disallowed, even though Bruno Henrique was offside. We took this up with the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and today the criteria seem to be different.“
The dispute centered on Diego Costa’s disallowed goal due to an alleged foul. Mazzuco vehemently contested this, saying: “Diego Costa was standing still, the defender was marked by Janderson and correctly played the ball, which fell to Diego’s feet for the goal. This is unacceptable“.
Expressing the frustration not only of Botafogo, but of many clubs, Mazzuco continued:“We will complain and take the necessary measures, although we have seen few changes despite the clubs’ complaints to the CBF.”
Lage agreed with Mazzuco’s sentiments, suggesting a perception of bias in VAR decisions and an attempt to keep the league competitive. “I’ve seen many VAR interventions with completely absurd criteria in other games, and these last two games have hurt us. I arrived here two months ago and I feel that there are different criteria in various games” said Lage.