An unprecedented decision was made yesterday by the Belgian Football Federation: the country's main football body decided to replay the match of the 19th round of the national championship Anderlecht vs Genk (2:1) because of an error that was made when using the VAR system.
In the 23rd minute of the match, Genk midfielder Brian Heynen failed to convert a penalty, but his teammate Ira Sor effectively played on the rebound, thus opening the scoring. However, the goal was cancelled after the VAR system was used: the referees recorded that Genk players Jari Versharen and Mario Struijkens ran into the Anderlecht penalty area prematurely during the penalty shootout.
It would seem that in this situation the referee should have decided to re-take the penalty, but in the end a free kick was awarded in favour of Anderlecht. This was the reason for the decision of the Belgian Football Federation to replay the match.
