Question Number: 32055

Other 11/26/2017

RE: Rec Adult

russell of Sydney, VAR trial country Australia asks...

and yet another VAR incident.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2017/11/26/both-sides-see-red-var-mars-adelaides-win-over-wanderers
https://www.a-league.com.au/news/kitto-fires-adelaide-past-gombaus-wanderers
Was it deliberate? The VAR panel believed so.

This one is very similar to the CRICKET DRS that occurred in the Australia v England Ashes Test today, where only one person on the field thourght the batsman had nicked a ball caught by the wicket keeper.
Sheepishly, the Aussie captain asked to have the incident reviewed and it proved that the batsman had nicked the ball. Issue is, while technically correct, the Cricket DRS was put in place to look at umpire decisions that where blatantly wrong. No one could say the umpire made a blatant wrong call, as the evidence the DRS system showed, was so slight that only an infra red camera was able to detect the 'nick' by the bat on ball.
Looks like this handball Penalty was similar, yes the ball and hand may have had contact, but was it deliberate?

Maybe they had better angles to see a noticeable deflections that made the ball go to the keeper as opposed to maybe into the goal - but was it deliberate. The defender seems to pull the hand away, even if slightly late on the pull away, is it only late due to the close range the ball was when hit.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Russell
The vagaries of deliberate handling. A straw poll of referees would illicit a very divided group on this
For me it is not deliberate. The player makes no attempt to stop or deflect the ball. Some will argue that his hand was raised yet there is no movement of it towards the ball. Throw in a second yellow then this is a doubly harsh decision.
Now we know from looking at senior panel group videos that instructions can be given that *advise* referees to do X in Y situations. The referee here may opine that the hand was raised away from the body and that it was a shot at goal and that the advice is DHB and a caution in such situations? Without VAR there was nothing and that was the correct decision for me.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

This was ALWAYS the danger of video review. The policy that I feel MUST be implemented is the video foul MUST affect the goal scoring opportunity 100% as the Esse 1998 WC incident proved not all is seen Cheers