Why VAR Took Two Hours to Disallow Argentina’s Goal vs Morocco at Olympics

The 2024 Summer Olympics began in controversial fashion as the opening men’s football match in Paris didn’t end until more than three hours after it initially kicked off. Argentina believed they’d snatched a last-gasp equaliser against Morocco, only to find out that wasn’t the case – almost two hours later.

Javier Mascherano’s men were trailing 2-1 as the referee, Glenn Nyberg, added 15 minutes to the end of the game. The 2022 World Cup saw longer periods of stoppage time, before Euro 2024 saw a return to shorter periods of additional time. This match looked to be a return to the former approach.

The lengthy added time should’ve been over when La Albiceleste forced the ball into the back of the net for what they thought was the equalising goal in the 106th minute. Morocco fans were outraged and play had to be suspended due to a flare being tossed in the direction of the Argentine players, along with bottles and cups. Supporters believed the game was over as a message popped up on screens inside Stade Geoffroy-Guichard saying: “Your session has been suspended, please make your way to the nearest exit.”

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The Reason it Took so Long to Disallow

Almost two hours passed before play resumed

After all the fans had made their way out of the stadium, it was brought to everyone’s attention that VAR checks had been going on in the background, and it was decided that Argentina’s goal should be disallowed for offside. Cristian Medina had nodded the ball home after a series of quick-fire Argentina chances, and it turned out the second-last man to have an effort on goal, Bruno Amione, had strayed into an offside position.

With the trouble caused inside the ground when Medina had initially put the ball in the net, ESPN’s VAR expert Dale Johnson has explained that organisers thought it was best to wait until the ground had completely emptied to announce the goal would be chalked off due to the earlier trouble. The rest of the game would be played behind closed doors as a safety measure. Without the trouble, it’s likely that the goal would have been ruled out within seconds thanks to FIFA’s semi-automated offside technology.

The players returned to the pitch just before 7pm to restart the match, almost three hours after the initial kick-off. This was also just about two hours after everyone had thought the game had ended. Nyberg disallowed the goal, bizarrely going to the monitor in the empty stadium, and the remaining minutes were played out. Morocco held on to the 2-1 win in an extremely controversial affair.

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Javier Mascherano’s Outrage

He branded the situation ‘a disgrace’

Former Liverpool and Barcelona midfielder Mascherano, who now manages Argentina Under 20s, went on an angry tirade after the incident took place. He previously won gold at the Olympics in 2004 and 2008, but was quick to hit out at the controversial situation: