The late penalty awarded to Man United vs PSG in the Champions League has caused a huge storm in the footballing circuit.
United were awarded the penalty during injury time and this eventually helped the Red Devils get a shocking win over PSG in the Round of 16 of the Champions League.
Almost every major football pundit has since come out to criticize the decision claiming the VAR and the referee made a wrong call and that the handball should not have been given.
Neymar even went a step further to abuse the officials on social media immediately after the game and to be honest most of the PSG fans have been sharing the same feeling.
The penalty came at such a point that there was very little time for the Paris outfit to make a comeback which meant they were knocked out of the Champions League once again in the Round of 16.
And now UEFA have finally chosen to come out with a statement in order to clarify the handball incident in the Champions League.
“Following the on-field review, the referee confirmed that the distance that the ball travelled was not short and the impact could therefore not be unexpected,” a UEFA statement read.
“The defender’s arm was not close to the body, which made the defender’s body bigger thus resulting in the ball being stopped from travelling in the direction of the goal. The referee, therefore, awarded a penalty kick.”
This statement from UEFA not only explains the awarding of the penalty last week but it is also expected to shape up future VAR decisions.
In normal circumstances, referees had to make a split second decision in which case they would often use the benefit of the doubt to make their call.
But now it looks like once a decision goes into VAR that benefit of the doubt scenario goes out of the window. And from that point onwards it’s only what the referee sees and how it sits in place according to the rules of the game.
Good luck to other teams playing in the Champions League and also in the Europa League final.
Read: The Europa and Champions League could see a massive change during the coming seasons.
Read: Here are some rules which are about to change in the EPL and in Europe.
