La Roja won their fourth continental title in Germany this summer, after 1964, 2008 and 2012. Having beaten the English in the final (2-1), the Spanish had blocked the path of Didier Deschamps’ Blues in the semi-final (2-1). This after having won another final before the hour, against the German hosts of the tournament (2-1).
This quarter-final was marked by an action that was the subject of controversy and controversy: a handball by the Iberian Marc Cucurella in the penalty area, on a shot by Jamal Musiala, while the two teams were still back to back, in extra time. A reprehensible gesture that Mr. Taylor, the English referee of the game, had not sanctioned, not exactly helped by the video assistance on this occasion.
UEFA report damning
And now, two months later, the Spanish media outlet Relevo has got its hands on a UEFA document mentioning the obvious error of the refereeing body in this decisive match on 5 July. A fault attributed both to the aforementioned central referee and to his assessors assigned to the VAR. Under the latest UEFA guidelines, hand contact that stops a shot on goal should be punished more severely and in most cases a penalty should be awarded, unless the defender’s arm is very close to the body or above the body. In Cucurella’s case, the defender stops the shot on goal with his arm, which is not very close to the body, making his coverage wider. A penalty should have been awarded “, judge the UEFA commissioners in this report.
The rules laid down by the IFAB in such circumstances are clear indeed. According to Article 12.1, a player commits a handball fault if he ” deliberately touches the ball with the arm or hand, for example with movement of the arm or hand towards the ball » or if he « touches the ball with his arm or hand while having artificially increased the surface area covered by his body. A player is considered to have artificially increased the surface area covered by his body when the position of his arm or hand is not a consequence of the movement of his body in that specific situation or is not justifiable by such a movement. »
