Honest Mistakes – Week 27

At 8:32

Dessers looks to control a cross, where there is a question of a possible accidental handball before a couple of deflections/blocks see the ball arrive back at his feet, where he scores from close range.

My gut feeling is that there is an initial handball, purely accidental, as the ball hits a combination of his stomach, knee & possibly left arm, all at the same time. His body shape is narrow, and I would be comfortable to see this kind of accidental contact allowed.

However, as Dessers is also the goal scorer, there is the additional consideration of Law 12 (Fouls & Misconduct) that states even if it is accidental handball, if the player scores a. directly from the hand/arm or b. immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm even if accidental – then a handball offence has occurred.

I suspect it is the interpretation of clause b. that, correctly, results in the goal being allowed to stand. Crucially, after it hit his arm, he didn’t score immediately.

If he had scored from a shot, straight after it touches his arm then I would have expected the goal to be disallowed. But here we see 2/3 Hearts defenders make contact with the ball in quick succession attempting to block the ball before it comes back to him, and he then strikes the ball home.

Verdict: CORRECT DECISION

Outcome

At 6:52

Straight forward call here. Johnston looks to fairly shoulder barge Vale and the Motherwell player, anticipating contact starts to fall forward before the contact arrives. No foul was committed here.

Verdict: CORRECT DECISION

Outcome

At 8:15

Furuhashi jumps up with Motherwell defender to challenge for a header, there does not appear to be any untoward contact from the defender during this initial contest.

Furuhashi gets straight back up, to then immediately feel the challenge of the second defender. The defender’s arm comes out and makes minimal contact with the Celtic man, who then drops to the floor a second time. For me, any contact made here is acceptable and does not justify how easily Furuhashi goes to the ground.

Verdict: CORRECT DECISION

Outcome

At 15:38

Casey closes the shot from the Celtic man and has the shot fired at him from very close range. I would say that it does hit the right hand of Casey, but his body is in a natural position to block the shot, his arm is not extended, but rather in close to the body.

Given the proximity and lack of reaction time available to the defender, I’m happy that no handball offence has been committed here.

Verdict: CORRECT DECISION

Outcome

At 17:12

Idah rolls his marker just outside the box and before he can get any sort of shot off, Butcher holds onto Idah. The foul is correctly given and Butcher is shown a yellow card for ‘stopping a promising attack’.

Given the proximity to the goal, VAR feels there is a possibility that the referee should also review if this is the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity from outside the box (which would be punishable as a free kick and the player sent off).

When distinguishing between what constitutes a SPA (stopping promising attack) or DOGSO (denial of obvious goalscoring opportunity) several variable factors should be considered by the referee.

These are distance from goal, general direction of play, number of defenders and player control/likelihood to regain control.

Given that Idah is outside of the box with two other defenders in relatively close proximity and the goalkeeper was still inside his 6-yard box expecting a shot from a distance, I agree with the on-field referee’s ‘gut’ decision to stick with the yellow card decision.

Although meeting a couple of triggers (direction of play, very central and distance from goal 20 yards out), for me it doesn’t quite feel to me like the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity has occurred here.

A subjective decision certainly, hence why VAR recommended the review to allow the referee a further opportunity to see the incident again.

Verdict: CORRECT

Outcome