Martin Samuel nails it again...
If there was anything positive about Manchester City’s disallowed goal last weekend, it was the sight of all those playing at being the only grown-up in the village being exposed as imposters, the former referees and many hipsters who sneeringly told critics that if they had just paid attention in the summer they would know that the VAR verdict was correct.
Delightfully, it turns out they don’t know the handball rule either. Kevin De Bruyne, the Manchester City player who complained most bitterly, was smugly concluded to be an ignoramus by people who had as smart a take on it as Ian Holloway.
De Bruyne’s only mistake was in completely accepting the official explanation for why Gabriel Jesus’s goal was disallowed, when it was wrong and based on a bogus interpretation.
De Bruyne was informed that any handball in the build-up to a goal is an offence, when the rule actually states: ‘It is an offence if a player gains possession/control of the ball after it has touched their hand/arm and then creates a goalscoring opportunity.’
Yet Aymeric Laporte in no way gained control or possession from his glancing deflection, and when the ball ended up with Jesus, he still had to beat several Tottenham players to score. So it isn’t the law that is an a**, but VAR as applied in this country. The fault, as ever, is human. We are told the kinks in VAR will settle down but for that to happen common sense must prevail. There is scant evidence of it so far."
The euphoria when celebrating a goal will definitely be gone if it carries on as it is now. They have to get back to "clear and obvious" only calls via VAR and giving the attackers the benefit in offsides. The game is all about goals, it's what fans watch for.
City fans are at the top of the complaining pile at the moment as we've now been on the end of some big VAR calls, Laporte/Jesus goal, Rodri no pen, the LLorente header and the Aguero offside/Sterling winner. It's gonna happen to everybody else sooner or later.
I've made the point Samuel is making, myself, in various threads; the decision is wrong even under their own handball rules.
But every v.a.r, incident so far, has been responded to like a medical team facing a lawsuit, absolving themselves of all responsibility & claiming everything is correct. So what we are getting, is that each horrendous fuckup, instead of being called out as a horrendous fuckup, actually becomes the 'new' interpretation of the rule.
So, for example, the ludiicrous handball against Otamendi, becomes the new handball rule, in order to save face, so consequently the rags end up beating PSG with a handball which would never have been given.
We saw the trouble that caused previously in the World Cup, where some refs followed the 'save face' interpretation of a foul & others followed the original guidelines, so the exact same offence was being punished in opposite ways in games on the same day! I said then it's a fucking joke which should be stopped & worked on before being used, if at all.
Apparently we now have a ref claiming the foul Spurs committed, was not a pen.
So imagine that becomes the new interpretation ? Some refs will ignore it & correctly give a pen anyway, which won't be overturned, some will give it & then get it overturned, others will not give it at all.
Oliver will give it, when someone farts next to Mo Salah, as he did last season.