REFS were CORRECT not to award a penalty for handball against Paris Saint-Germain’s Joao Neves.
That is according to an almost completely unknown Ifab directive, which outlines a loophole in the usual handball rules if the ball is struck onto a player’s hand or arm by their own team-mate.
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Vitinha launched the ball clear for PSG with his right foot Credit: TNT SPORT
The ball then struck the outstretched arm of Joao Neves Credit: TNT Sports
Blood was boiling in the Bayern Munich camp when Neves clearly handled the ball early in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final defeat to PSG.
The Parisians were 6-4 up on aggregate and leading 1-0 on the night, with Bayern needing a spark to get them back in the tie.
Referee Joao Pinheiro had a clear view but waved play on, and the VAR chose not to intervene.
The call sparked mass confusion a week after Bayern’s Alphonso Davies was controversially punished for a handball in the first leg.
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In that instance, Davies’ arm was closer to a natural position than Neves’ outstretched limb at the Allianz Arena.
The crucial difference, however, was fellow PSG star Vitinha clearing it onto Neves’ arm.
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Referee Joao Pinheiro applied the laws of the game correctly Credit: Getty
Baffled fans came up empty-handed after scouring Ifab’s laws of the game for clarity on a rare incident like this one.
But it is mentioned as a single-paragraph directive on their website.
There, the governing body responded to the question: What happens if a player is hit on the hand/arm by the ball from a team-mate’s kick/header?
And it reads: “This is not a handball (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scored immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team).”
That exemption would be trumped if the referee judged the handball to be deliberate – which Neves’ was not.
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey told JattvibeSport: “There is no mention of this type of incident in law 12 – but there is a separate Ifab ruling.
“Portuguese referee Joao Pinheiro rightly did not award a spot-kick because the ball did not go ‘directly into the opponents’ goal’ off Neves, nor did ‘the player score immediately afterwards’.
“That is what makes it different from the penalties that Bayern’s Alphonso Davies and Arsenal’s Ben White conceded last week.
Ousmane Dembele’s early goal helped fire PSG into the Champions League final Credit: AFP
Ben White was penalised for a harsh handball in Madrid last week Credit: PA
“But I did not think those should be been awarded either — neither were deliberate acts.
“There is a hardline, daft interpretation of the handball law in Europe and it is a massive mess.
“It needs to be uniform throughout world football — who knows what will happen at the World Cup?”
Ref controversy has been a running theme in this round of Champions League semis.
Arsenal felt hard done by at Atletico Madrid last week when White conceded a handball penalty and then their own spot-kick, won by Eberechi Eze, was contentiously overturned by VAR.
But they followed that 1-1 draw with a 1-0 win in the home leg to win 2-1 on aggregate and go through to the final.
The Gunners will be joined in Budapest by PSG after their draw in Munich on Wednesday night.
Ousmane Dembele and Harry Kane scored the only goals of a second leg that was far cagier than last week’s 5-4 thriller.
