Question Number: 32878

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/14/2018

RE: Adult

Gianluca of Wexford town, wexford Ireland asks...

Do you think the Juve tus player fouled the AC Milan player with his attempt to block the cross?

https://mobile.twitter.com/RYOmoha/status/1062121124648153088?s=20

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Gianluca
Thanks for the question. Not an easy one from the video shown.
On balance I am not sure yet I believe that some of the signals point to a foul. Chillini can be seen apologising to Higuain so one could assume that there was contact? I think though that as the ball did not reach Higuain that the referee was focussed on the slide to stop the ball so the incident was out of his clear view. It was also too far away for the AR to get involved although I think with VAR that if there was a clear foul on video the referee would have been informed by the VAR control room to view it. I also think that the incident was not really connected with play and as it looked like anticipation of play gone wrong that it was somewhat *ignored* for perhaps that reason, just two player heading for the same space making contact with each other.
Now the only video I have seen is the one you have shown which is not clear so not sure if there were clearer videos of the incident from different angles so as to make a 100% decision.
If I was asked to make a call on that video as VAR I would say no foul simply on the basis of lack of clarity. If I was asked to give an opinion on the video with nothing at stake I would say maybe yes there was likely foul contact yet on the night it was not given even with VAR available so that is all that matters.
Not a great night for Higuain getting sent off at the end and behaving very poorly. It was a clear foul by him and he should just have accepted it, got on with play instead of berating the referee.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

No obvious foul for me as my first thought was I see the attacker moving over into the feet of the defender more than the defender sliding into the attacker.
That was my first instinct in real time, I slowed the video & it created some uncertainty but still no foul for me! Temper temper temper, you can only say or get away with so much.
Cheers