The Premier League Match Centre has issued a statement on the controversial handball decision at Old Trafford, which Gary Neville labelled ‘ridiculous’.
Matheus Cunha scored Manchester United’s second goal of the game against Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon, but most expected it to be ruled out.
A cross reached Bryan Mbeumo, bobbled up and hit his arm before the Cameroonian forward got a shot off.
That was blocked and the ball fell to Cunha, who scored but VAR quickly reviewed the situation and sent referee Michael Salisbury to the screen to review the decision.
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Surprisingly, he let the goal stand, confirming that he saw Mbeumo’s handball as accidental. The Red Devils went on to win the game 3-2 and the Premier League Match Centre released an explanation as to why the controversial goal stood.
A post on X read: ‘After VAR review, the referee stuck with the original decision to award a goal to Manchester United.
‘Referee announcement: “After review, the decision of goal stands because the handball offence is accidental, therefore the final decision is goal.”’
It was an unusual situation as it is not often VAR sends the referee to the screen and the ref chooses not to overturn the original decision.
Neville could not believe what he saw, believing it was clearly a handball that should have seen the goal chalked off.
‘Honestly, that is ridiculous,’ the former Manchester United defender said on Sky Sports. ‘The VAR has been clear: the player has handballed it.
‘He looked at it for three minutes and the referee has looked at it for another minute. I can’t believe what I have just seen. That was handball. I don’t know what to say.
‘I think that is an absolute shocker in every single way. It’s ridiculous. The VAR have been quite clear, they said it has been disallowed, he has handballed it and brought the ball back into play. I can’t believe what I have just seen to be honest.
‘VAR looked at it for three minutes and then the referee looks at it for another minute. They are overthinking it. They have got themselves into a real mess there.’
Handball law
As part of Law 12 – Fouls and misconduct
HANDLING THE BALL
For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit. Not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence.
It is an offence if a player:
deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball
touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised
scores in the opponents’ goal:
directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper
immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental.
Premier League record goal-scorer Alan Shearer posted on X: ‘Wow. That’s disgraceful. Shocking shocking shocking. That’s a CLEAR hand ball.’
Roy Keane joined the baffled voices, saying on Sky Sports: ‘We are confused ourselves here, especially when the referee gets asked to go to the screen and then gives it.
‘All of us ex-footballers will all be saying the same, handball, and I don’t think anyone would have complained about it. We were all scratching our heads when it was allowed.’
Former Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann told the BBC: ‘You can clearly see that the ball comes off Mbeumo’s arm prior to going to Cunha. For me it is a penalisable handball.
‘Mbeumo does control the ball and while he’s not the scorer himself, football’s expectation is for that to be disallowed as opposed to being given.
‘The law states that usually it’s the scorer, if he accidentally or deliberately handles the ball before putting the ball in the back of the net, it will be disallowed. Football’s expectation is that the handball outweighs any possible deflection off Mbeumo’s hip.’
It was all part of an entertaining game at Old Trafford, which saw United take the lead after just five minutes through Luke Shaw.
Morato equalised for Forest on 53 minutes, but the controversial Cunha game just a couple of minutes later.
Mbeumo got on the scoresheet himself with a quarter-of-an-hour to play, but Morgan Gibbs-White kept the game alive with a brilliant finish two minutes later.
It was the Red Devils who created more chances late on, but none were put away and the game finished 3-2.