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Rabat – The Croatian Football Association (HNS) has filed a formal complaint to the FIFA President Gianni Infantino following the controversial 2-1 defeat to Portugal in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Round of 32 match, stating that technology was overused in the match.
The Croatian team’s World Cup run ended in a devastating manner as Joško Gvardiol scored what seemed to be an equalizing goal in stoppage time that could have brought the match to the extra time. The goal was ruled out by referee Espen Eskås following a long VAR review.
Speaking to RTL Danas, HNS spokesperson Tomislav Pacak expressed the federation’s frustration. “To begin with, we believe that the VAR protocol was completely incorrectly applied to the penalty kick for Portugal, and the referee should not have been called to review the footage,” he said. “And more importantly, with Gvardiol’s equalizer, Pasalic was awarded offside against the rules and spirit of football due to Matanovic’s non-existent ball play, because the sensor showed so.”
Bad refereeing and intrusive technology
He went on to accuse the match officials of an abusive use of technology. While Croatia welcomes some use of technology in football, he argued, “ “we believe that this application is not beneficial to FIFA, teams and football fans, and we know that our letter will not reduce the pain and disappointment of fans and players, but we believe that it is important to warn FIFA and request a detailed explanation of all decisions.”
Moreover, Croatian national team coach Zlatko Dalić accused the referee of “very bad refereeing.” Yet he also denied pointing the finger at everything and said that Croatia had an opportunity to win at the end of the game.
According to reports, the connected-ball technology found that there was a little touch by Igor Matanović on the ball before it passed to Joško Gvardiol and thus put Mario Pašalić in an offside position. The connected-ball technology of FIFA aims to find out any little touch on the ball for offside decisions.
The issue raised by this case has shed light again on the problem of the growing influence of technologies in football. Supporters believe that the use of sensors makes decision-making more precise. However, opponents argue that the information concerning the barely noticeable touches makes the sport incompatible with the idea of VAR technology.
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