Can they talk us through the disallowed Bournemouth goal
Bunch of ****s
What happened: Bournemouth scored what they thought was a 92nd-minute winner when
Dango Ouattara appeared to head home a corner from
Lewis Cook. The referee, David Coote, gave the goal but it was checked for a possible handball by the VAR, Tim Robinson.
VAR decision: Goal disallowed.
VAR review: It had all started so well. The judgement from the Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents Panel, whatever stock you place on that, gave one of its cleanest report cards from Matchday 1. Only one vote out of 195 across 39 incidents said there had been a mistake. That, for the record, was for
West Ham United's penalty against
Aston Villa.
But PGMOL has very little credit in the bank after a troubled 2023-24 season with a catalogue of high-profile incidents. It wasn't going to take much for the perception of failure to seep back in. Indeed,
West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady even managed to stick the boot in via her newspaper column on Saturday despite an unblemished first weekend.
What the Premier League really needed was a strong August devoid of controversy (you'll never lose the contentious incidents.) Yet in a few short minutes in this game the worst of VAR reared its head again.
There's nothing more infuriating for fans than the video referee disallowing a dramatic, late winner -- especially when it's shown to be unjust.
There wasn't the definitive proof to say the ball hit Ouattara's arm where it's a handball offence. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't -- but without conclusive evidence the VAR shouldn't be disallowing the goal. If there's doubt, it should stay with the on-field call -- and Bournemouth should have had a late winner.
It's worth discussing the background too. Contrary to popular belief, handball doesn't start at the bottom of the sleeve. That wouldn't make any sense when some players wear long-sleeved shirts.
Until 2021 there wasn't a definition of handball in the laws, but the whole of the arm was in general used to determine an offence. So, up to 2021 this goal would have been correctly disallowed.
It was impossible to be certain that the ball hit the arm of Dango Ouattara. BBC
Then, the IFAB confused everyone by saying the "t-shirt line" should be used.
(Prepare yourselves for the definition)
What this actually meant was the point at the bottom of the armpit around the circumference of the arm. Makes sense? Not really. But in effect the IFAB was saying the shoulder area now isn't handball, when previously it was.
It's an extremely difficult place to pinpoint. Where does the handball offence start? What if some of the ball is touching below that point? Or does it need to be all of the ball? And how is it consistently determined based on different arm positions?
Few law changes in recent years have helped referees, and this made handball more difficult to judge.
The IFAB released a graphic in 2021 to show where the handball offence should begin. The IFAB
This isn't about "clear and obvious," or the new "referee's call." That only refers to truly subjective situations, like possible red cards and penalties. Handball before scoring is considered factual, ergo if the ball touches the arm it can't be a goal regardless of the player's arm position.
But a decision which is considered factual in definition can still be subjective in application. It's possible that two officials could come to different judgements on this goal. In other leagues, the referee might be sent to the monitor to "sell" the decision: it's such a huge, match-defining moment which isn't totally clear, so the referee should make the final call even though by strict protocol it's not necessary. This has never been the case in the Premier League.
This was only the ninth game as VAR for Tim Robinson, who is a recent appointment to the Premier League list. In those previous eight matches he had one error to his name, the failure to award a penalty to
Nottingham Forest against West Ham in February.
Ouattara has had goals ruled out through VAR in each of the opening matchdays.