Newcastle United made their Champions League return last season after a 20-year absence, facing a tough draw in the’ group of death.’
The Magpies found themselves in a group with AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, and Paris Saint-Germain, with few believing they could advance past the group stage.
Although Newcastle faced challenges in a few matches, Eddie Howe’s team was in a position to advance to the knockout stages before their last group match against PSG.
Newcastle Showed They Could Compete with Elite Teams
In the final moments of the match, Paris Saint-Germain was awarded a penalty after VAR ruled that Tino Livramento had handled the ball. Although the ball did hit Tino’s arm, he was completely unaware, as it had deflected off his body before making contact with his arm.
Kylian Mbappe successfully scored the penalty, bringing Newcastle’s Champions League hopes to an end.
The controversy surrounding the penalty decision continued for some time and resurfaced after PGMOL chief Howard Webb mentioned the incident in a discussion on The Overlap.
Howard Webb Discusses Changes to Premier League Handball
Webb cited the incident as an example of a harsh but correct decision based on the way the rules are formulated.
“The laws of the game say you can only be penalized for a handball in a small number of circumstances. If you’re an attacker and the ball hits your arm and goes in immediately or goes to your foot and you score, that has to be penalized.
“For me, that is tough because the ball can be drilled at you; it’s going to hit your body anyway. VAR has to spend about a minute and a half looking at different angles – did it hit the arm, did it hit the body – that’s frustrating when the player knew nothing about it and didn’t really get an advantage. Still, we have to penalize it as that’s the way it’s written.
“The other ways are, if you deliberately handled the ball – such as Luis Suárez in the 2010 World Cup where he dips it over the bar – or if you make yourself unnaturally big in a way that is not justifiable. This year in the Premier League, we’ve given zero penalties for handball, and I can’t remember any controversy around handball this year.
“The reason that is because we consulted with clubs, we sent a survey out to every club, every captain in February or March, and the feedback was very clear – you give too many penalties that are not real penalties, that are not handballs. Players are just playing normally.”
“If you think about [Mateo] Kovačić in the game at Chelsea against [Manchester] City, he goes to clear the ball, [his right arm comes up], and the ball gets drilled from close range onto his arm – we just waved it away.
“Now, in some other competitions, what they do is they understand that making a judgment of natural and unjustifiable can be quite subjective. At some point, an arm can be too far away.
“What the governing bodies say is because there’s some subjectivity around a player making themselves big and making that judgment can be hard, the way you’re consistent is anytime your arm is away from your body, and it blocks the ball, you’re going to get penalized. At least you’re consistent, and players know what to expect.
“[We’ve changed that interpretation in the Premier League] because we’ve listened to the game, and we think we’re fine in the way that the law is written. We’ve said to the officials, only penalize when you form the professional judgment that the player has deliberately handled it, or even when the player has moved into the ball with their arm away – that is handball – or it’s just unjustifiable, and they go to block a shot like this [arms fully stretched] and to play like a goalkeeper.
“But then you get situations like Newcastle [United] last year in Paris – that was a super harsh penalty. The ball came off a player’s body and onto his arm, and they lost the game off the back of that.”
Thanks for shutting the stable door after the horse has escaped. While this change only impacts the Premier League, the Champions League decision would still be interpreted the same way. It’s quite absurd to consider how the same sport can have different rules based on the competition.
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