A football referee has praised his video assistant after his colleague sitting in a van used replay footage to influence an on-field decision and have a player sent off.
It was the first time a video assistant referee (VAR) altered a decision made by a match official during a competitive game.
The incident took place in the Dutch capital Amsterdam during a cup tie between home side Ajax and Willem II Tilburg.
Willem II midfielder Anouar Kali, 25, made a crunching tackle on Ajax's Lasse Schone, 30, and was promptly given a booking by ref Danny Makkelie.
But VAR Pol van Boekel, who was sitting in a small van in front of six TV screens near the parking area at the Amsterdam Arena, demanded to see the replays of the incident.
After scrutinising the footage and seeing that the decision was too lenient, he informed his on-pitch colleague to send Kali off.
Kali, who that night effectively became the first player to get his marching orders from a video assistant referee, appeared to plead his innocence throughout the sending off.
And Willem II fans, who saw their team lost 5-0 that night, were perhaps not aware of the change in the refereeing system and were outraged and confused by the sudden change in decision.
But referee Makkelie later said that van Boekel had made the correct decision to have the player sent off.
Makkelie said: "I judged the foul wrongly in the end. That's not fun, but I'm happy that in the end it was corrected. I got a replay from the video referee and it was 100 percent a red card.
"It proves the worth of the video referee. Otherwise, someone would have remained on the pitch who would have deserved a red card."
And video ref van Boekel told local media: "I saw a foul by Kali. And at that moment I thought that’s quite a big one. At that moment, you check the video again.
"The technician who operates the video immediately got the images ready for me from different angles and in slow motion, and after a few seconds I was sure it was a red card."
VAR Pol van Boekel will go back to normal refereeing on Thursday (today) for another Dutch Cup match.
And in turn, Makkelie will take up the role of becoming a VAR and also hopefully produce another important contribution in keeping the officiating as balanced and fair as possible.
Video technology was used last month in Italy as they were beaten by France, although there was no incident requiring a VAR to get involved and stop match action to study replays.
The VARs will review incidents when asked by the match referee as well as advise officials on the field about any incidents they may have missed.
