Denmark rulings show how video review at Euro 2024 moved on far from FIFA's original vision for VAR

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Video review of soccer referees' decisions is testing the patience and faith of coaches, players and fans at the European Championship — as it has all season in club games.

When FIFA tested and shaped the Video Assistant Review (VAR) concept in 2016, there were some defined goals and promises.

Only overturn clear errors. Do not undermine the authority of the match referee. Give decisions within 10 seconds.

How is that working out for everyone two World Cups and two Euros later, plus countless controversies in English Premier League games?

Not well at all, according to Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand.

“In my opinion this is not how football is supposed to be,” Hjulmand said late Saturday after a 2-0 loss to Germany that swung on back-to-back technology-aided decisions from the English match officials.

Instead of leading 1-0 in the 48th minute, on Joachim Andersen’s goal ruled offside, Denmark was trailing 1-0 in the 53rd, to a penalty awarded against Andersen for handball.

“Yeah, it was an even game. And then in the end, it was the referee who decided the game for us,” Andersen said.

The reaction of Hjulmand and Andersen — who plays for English Premier League club Crystal Palace and well knows the work of referee Michael Oliver and VAR specialist Stuart Attwell — summed up widespread frustration in an era of so many goal celebrations cut short.

This is the tournament, of course, where the joint top scorers through Saturday have three goals and Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku alone has had three goals overruled by VAR.

Referees also can often seem to be remotely controlled, going against FIFA’s pledge in 2016: “Never lose the authority of referees, never take it out.”

“Michael Oliver is not making this decision,” Tottenham’s Australian coach Ange Postecoglou said of the penalty award during a British broadcast of the Denmark game. “If I hear one more person saying that they’re not re-refereeing a game, I will blow up. I don’t think that is why we brought in technology for that decision.”

The ball clearly struck Andersen’s hand though from a hard-hit cross at such a close distance that Oliver did not initially judge it a foul, had he thought an arm was extended in an unnatural position.

While the VAR intervention was decisive, applying the strict laws of the game regarding handball was the issue for some.

“The hand ball law is (expletive),” Alan Shearer, the former England great and BBC broadcaster, wrote on social media.

Hjulmand said he was “so tired of the ridiculous handball rule. Joachim was running normally. It’s a normal situation.”

VAR officials also were not technically responsible for the offside judged against Denmark’s Thomas Delaney, who had a toe or two beyond the last German defender. It was a binary ruling by the multi camera-based Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) system conveyed to the referee from the VAR room.

Lukaku being offside before scoring against Romania was similarly marginal, using a system developed since 2016.

“SAOT is working very, very well, we are super happy,” UEFA’s head of refereeing Roberto Rosetti said Friday in a review of match officials’ performance in the 36 group-stage games.

After 20 corrections by VAR in those 36 games, the rate was bumped up by the three key overrules — two goals disallowed, one for each team, and the Germany penalty awarded — in the second of the round of 16 games.

One of the most controversial previous VAR rulings also involved Attwell, who helped steer another English referee, Anthony Taylor, to rule out a goal for the Netherlands against France. The officials decided France goalkeeper Mike Maignan had been impeded by Denzel Dumfries standing nearby in an offside position. The game ended 0-0.

The offside tech has been giving decisions within an average of 46 seconds, Rosetti said, while VAR decisions overall, which can include sending the referee to a pitch-side monitor, were averaging one minute, 36 seconds.

Those are faster decisions by far than in the now-infamously erratic Premier League, yet still way beyond FIFA’s original wish for decisions within seconds to not disrupt the flow of play.

“We have 10 seconds, or 12 seconds if we want, but it’s not good for the game,” said top Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers in 2016. Kuipers is now retired from games and is at Euro 2024 working for UEFA.

Despite complaints and frustration about VAR, when Premier League clubs were asked on June 6 about scrapping it next season they voted 19-1 to keep it.

Also, the laws on handball and offside can be changed at the annual meeting of the panel known as IFAB. It is run by FIFA and the four British soccer federations.

Ultimately, however, the soccer industry wants to live without more of the epic controversies that are part of its lore.

Did England’s decisive third goal against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final really cross the goal-line? Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal helped Argentina beat England in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals.

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann, who was not born until 1987, suggested Saturday the game is now better for its technology.

“I think when you value every situation, and if VAR interrupts the game and you compare it to the former days,” Nagelsmann said, “I think it’s more fair than if you have no VAR.”

AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024

Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands, right, protest to the referee Anthony Taylor of England, after a goal scored by a teammate was disallowed during a Group D match between the Netherlands and France at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Leipzig, Germany, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mathias Schrader)

Xavi Simons of the Netherlands, right, scores a later disallowed goal during a Group D match between the Netherlands and France at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Leipzig, Germany, Friday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Denmark's Andreas Christensen, centre, argues with referee Michael Oliver during a round of sixteen match between Germany and Denmark at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku, right, scores a second goal which was disallowed shortly after as handball during a Group E match between Belgium and Slovakia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku celebrates after scoring a later disallowed goal during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Denmark's Joachim Andersen reacts to a VAR decision that disallowed the goal he scored during a round of sixteen match between Germany and Denmark at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Referee Michael Oliver during a round of sixteen match between Germany and Denmark at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Denmark's Joachim Andersen scores a goal which was disallowed during a round of sixteen match between Germany and Denmark at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

English referee Michael Oliver gives a penalty for handball against Denmark after checking the VAR during a round of sixteen match between Germany and Denmark at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) — Hurricane Beryl strengthened to Category 5 status late Monday after it ripped doors, windows and roofs off homes across the southeastern Caribbean with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic's record warmth.

Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic, then late in the day the National Hurricane Center in Miami said its winds had increased to 160 mph (260 kph). Fluctuations in strength, and later a significant weakening, were forecast as the storm pushs further into the Caribbean in the coming days.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said one person had died and he could not yet say if there were other fatalities because authorities had not been able to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of major damage but communications were largely down.

“We do hope there aren’t any other fatalities or any injuries,” he said. “But bear in mind the challenge we have in Carriacou and Petite Martinique.” Mitchel added that the government will send people first thing Tuesday morning to evaluate the situation on the islands.

Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris. Banana trees were snapped in half and cows lay dead in green pastures with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.

“Right now, I’m real heartbroken,” said Vichelle Clark King as she surveyed her damaged shop in the Barbadian capital of Bridgetown that was filled with sand and water.

Beryl was still swiping the southeast Caribbean late Monday as it pushed into the Caribbean Sea on a track heading just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by late Thursday as a Category 1 storm.

Beryl was about 510 miles (825 kilometers) east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph (33 kph). A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for the southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Fluctuations were likely but Beryl was expected to stay near major hurricane intensity as it moved into the central Caribbean and passed near Jamaica on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. After that, significant weakening was expected.

The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

On Monday afternoon, officials received “reports of devastation” from Carriacou and surrounding islands, said Terence Walters, Grenada’s national disaster coordinator. itchell said he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it’s safe, noting there’s been an “extensive” storm surge.

Grenada officials had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after hospital roof was damaged, he said.

“There is the likelihood of even greater damage,” he told reporters. “We have no choice but to continue to pray.”

In Barbados, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones — which are faster than crews fanning across the island — would assess damage once Beryl passed.

Jaswinderpal Parmar of Fresno, California, who was among the thousands who traveled to Barbados for Saturday’s Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, said he and his family were now stuck there with scores of other fans, their flights canceled on Sunday.

He said by phone that it’s the first time he has experienced a hurricane — he and his family have been praying, as well as taking calls from concerned friends and family as far away as India.

“We couldn’t sleep last night,” Parmar said.

Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, which only six other Atlantic hurricanes have done, with Sept. 1 as the previous earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

It also was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, besting Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005. Beryl later became the earliest Category 5 observed in the Atlantic basin on record, and only the second Category 5 hurricane in July after Hurricane Emily in 2005. the National Hurricane Center said.

Beryl amassed its strength from record warm waters that are hotter now than they would be at the peak of hurricane season in September, said hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.

Beryl also marked the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people.

Short-lived Tropical Storm Chris had formed Sunday night near eastern Mexico before weakening back to a depression Monday. A cluster of thunderstorms mimicking Beryl's path in the western Atlantic was less organized late Monday but had a small chance of becoming a named storm in the next few days.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent contributed to this report.

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image taken at 10:50pm EDT shows hurricane Beryl, center, as it moves across the Caribbean on Monday, July 1, 2024. Hurricane Beryl has strengthened to Category 5 status as it crossed islands in the southeastern Caribbean. (NOAA via AP)

A fisherman pushes a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A fisherman jumps from a vessel damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fishermen look out at vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Houses damaged by Hurricane Beryl in Kingstown, Srt. Vincent and the Grenadines, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

A fisherman looks at fishing vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A fisherman looks out at vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fisherman Hamilton Cosmos looks at vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Sylvia Small, right, waits for police approval to enter the pier to check her boat's damages due to Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fishing vessels lie damaged after Hurricane Beryl passed through the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A tree lies on the roof of a house in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, after Hurricane Beryl on Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Fishing vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl sit upended at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Fishermen pull a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl back to the dock at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A fisherman looks at fishing vessels damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A tree slumps after being uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Waves batter a pier during the pass of Hurricane Beryl in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Day breaks over a pier as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Waves batter palm trees as Hurricane Beryl passes through Hastings, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Rick Burn takes photos of damages caused by Hurricane Beryl in Hastings, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Youths take photos as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Members of the Barbados Defence Force clean up a street after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A Barbados Defence Force member cleans up a street after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A bird flies away from a palm tree after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl floods a street in Hastings, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Boats lie capsized in a flooded street after Hurricane Beryl passed through St. Lawrence, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

The sea floods the street after Hurricane Beryl passed through St. Lawrence, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A man takes photos after Hurricane Beryl passed through Oistins, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Wind blows past a house whose roof blew away during Hurricane Beryl in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Donna Charles, a hotel cook, watches as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A surfer braves the waves in Carlisle Bay as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Waves batter a pier as Hurricane Beryl passes through Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A resident carries wood to cover his house's windows in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People disassemble a beach bar's awning in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk off the beach after attending a religious gathering in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Sailboats line up to enter a marina ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Speightstown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)