You can make a very good argument based on current instruction that it's not deliberate, so the ultimate decision is defensible and/or correct. Of course, there are components of the incident that make the original call defensible, too, as pointed out above. It's a judgment call that FIFA possibly wants as a non-call in an instructional setting, but it's not clear-cut. That prompts me to raise the issue of VAR relative to this incident. Neither decision could possibly be a "clear and obvious error," right? In this particular situation, the referee re-thought her call and possibly took advice from her assistants, to change their subjective assessment of what happened and get a different call. But if VAR was in place, the VAR should only be recommending a change for a "clear and obvious error," and as this thread shows and our instruction dictates, reaching that threshold seems like it should be impossible. So the VAR shouldn't even be recommending a review of a play like this and, even if she did, the referee's standard after an OFR has to be "I unequivocally got that wrong" not "yeah, looking at that again, I really don't like that call." And the former standard is impossible to meet on this incident. Yet without a VAR, the call gets reversed.
I assumed it was from player input based on earlier posts. Input from crew is fine, but I have a hard time believing the AR or 4O had a better view - she was in good position. I don't like the idea of simply changing her mind with more time to think about it. If you need to think about it do it before you blow the whistle.
I think it was ultimately the correct decision from Vitulano. Reminds me of the Villareal - Real Madrid game where Jesus Gil Manzano gave a penalty after the ball deflected off another player, and the whole Villareal team were furious.
Group C Iceland - Austria: HUSSEIN (GER), BIEHL (GER), KOUROMPYLIA (GRE), FRAPPART (FRA) Switzerland - France: KULCSAR (HUN), KULCSAR (HUN), KUROCHKINA (RUS), STEINHAUS (GER) Third match for Kulcsar. (24 matches and 11 referees, so two referees must get three matches.) Interesting that a member of her trio was changed. Also Frappart is fourth official in a group involving France.
IMO the words making oneself bigger should have nothing to do with the discussion of this play. The concept of making oneself bigger is to address the deliberate actions that players would take to us their arms to take up space from an opponent with the ball. This play was nothing like that -- she mishit the ball that went in an unexpected place and the arm was in the perfectly natural place for balance. IMO, with VAR, this is a PK that should be reversed if VAR were used. IT is a classic example of entirely inadvertent ball-to-arm -- alas one that gets called sometimes because it looks bad and the immediate thought is arm. (IMO the *only* way to think this is deliberate handling is if you believe that rather than the ball just hitting her arm, she moved her arm toward the ball when she realized she miskicked it. But I think the one angle that looks kinda like that is the way that slow-mo sometimes makes things look funky.) I don't believe for a second that she changed the all because an English player remnded her it had to be deliberate. But I'd really like to hear what went on over the headset.
The appointments of NOR-DEN (Group A) has changed. Frappart (FRA) has now this match. Monzul (UKR) is now FO on the BEL-NED match.
Group D Scotland - Spain: ADAMKOVA (CZE), RATAJOVA (CZE), SUKENIKOVA (SVK), LEHTOVAARA (FIN) Portugal - England: MONZUL (UKR), STRILETSKA (UKR), ARDASHEVA (UKR), STAUBLI (SUI)
Rather imbalanced load for the group stage: Adamkova, Frappart, Kulcsar, and Monzul all worked three matches, while Pustovoitova and Larsson only worked one. (Frappart even had two matches in the same group.) This really contrasts with the men's EURO, where all referees work exactly two group stage matches.
I know I'm only relying on highlights, but Monzul doesn't seem very convincing and her style is very aggressive and off-putting. She had the US-Nigeria game in 2015 but I don't believe I was able to watch so don't have a memory of her. Anyway, seems like she's well thought of so kind of surprises me given what I can see of her.
I think she's one of the stricter referees out there. Compared to someone like Steinhaus I agree she's must less pleasant to watch. Anyway she also had the US-Japan final in 2015 (along with the opening match of that WWC), but was hardly needed due to the one-sided nature of the match. She did give a couple of good cards to the Japanese players later on when the game needed a card, though.
Ha. Shows how much the refereeing mattered in that match that I didn't even realize she had the Final.
Quarterfinals: Netherlands - Sweden: STEINHAUS (GER), RAFALSKI (GER), KOUROMPYLIA (GRE), VITULANO (ITA) Germany - Denmark: KULCSAR (HUN), KULCSAR (HUN), IUGULESCU (ROU), CLARK (SCO) Austria - Spain: FRAPPART (FRA), NICOLOSI (FRA), MASSEY (ENG), MULARCZYK (POL) England - France: STAUBLI (SUI), BREM (SUI), RODJAK KARSIC (CRO), LEHTOVAARA (FIN) Fourth match for Kulcsar and Frappart, marquee match for Staubli. Did any referee get sent back home in this tournament?
They have mixed the AR's once again. Kourompilia is with Steinhaus now and the Romanian AR with Kulcsar. Also Massey is with Frappart. A weird set of appointments.
For the remaining matches, I'd guess Monzul for Denmark - Austria, Kulcsar for Netherlands - England, and Steinhaus for the Final.
Semifinal appointments Denmark - Austria Kateryna MONZUL, Striletska (both UKR), Iugulescu (ROM), Kulcsar (HUN) Netherlands - England Stephanie FRAPPART, Nicolosi (both FRA), Kourompylia (GRE), Steinhaus (GER) Staubl seems to be the favorite for the final now.
Huh? Where did the second UKR AR go? They were the only full team that made it and they worked together for the 3 GS matches Monzul got but suddenly one isn't there?
Really uneven distribution of matches at this tournament. Here's the breakdown, with the Final to go. 5 matches FRAPPART (FRA) 4 matches KULCSAR (HUN) MONZUL (UKR) 3 matches ADAMKOVA (CZE) STAUBLI (SUI) STEINHAUS (GER) 2 matches HUSSEIN (GER) MULARCZYK (POL) VITULANO (ITA) 1 match LARSSON (SWE) PUSTOVOITOVA (RUS)
I think the main reason is performance. I remember Webb on 2012 EURO when he got a QF with 1 English AR and 1 from Netherlands.
As expected, Staubli gets the final. Netherlands v Denmark Referee: Esther Staubli (Switzerland) Assistant Referee 1 : Belinda Brem (Switzerland) Assistant Referee 2 : Sanja Rodjak Karšić (Croatia) Fourth official: Bibiana Steinhaus (Germany) Reserve assistant referee: Katrin Rafalski (Germany)
From the English team there was criticism on the referee. Has any one of you an opinion about the decisions made in the Netherlands-England match?
It may not have made any difference to the result, but there were a couple of pretty good penalty decisions where England players were brought down that were not called. It seemed that the referee was reluctant to make these decisions against the home team. PH