Using your experience to defend your willful ignorance is some kind of debating tactic. The Law has been changed and amended over and over again in the last 15 years precisely because so many people complain and want more objectivity. And then when it comes, people complain about the rigid interpretation and/or that they aren't aware of the changes--some even cite their years of experience and are bewildered that they don't understand the Law. It's really something. Hold on. It's my/our problem that you chose to post falsehoods about an incident because you... did so too quickly and without knowing all the facts? You're like a walking parody at this point. Because he moves the arm in a completely different manner than he did for the entire time in which he was tracking back. And he does so after the ball has changed direction. But you either know that or are quite literally incapable of recognizing it; neither option leads to honest discussion. Not all others, just maybe you. This is at least the fourth time that you just falsely described an incident without video. You have shown yourself to not be a good faith actor, particularly when one of your teams is involved. There are plenty of non-referees who engage here in good faith or lurk here with the goal of becoming more informed. There are very, very few posters that are met with hostility. Self-reflecting on why you're often one of them might be a worthwhile endeavor, but I'm not going to hold out much hope.
My only comment is going to be that this was arm to ball, not ball to arm, and it was not a fast moving ball. That was an indicator of something that should be considered in evaluating whether an action was deliberate long before IFAB started messing around with the definition of handling. I see this as something that was far more likely to be called than not going back decades. (But I could also imagine some refs not interpreting it as deliberate.)
For what it's worth, UEFA's official VAR explanation is that it was a deliberate handball by the Newcastle player: https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...-champions-league-var-technical-explanations/ If you read through that page, you'll see UEFA uses "unnatural" when that's what it means, so the choice of "deliberate" is, well, deliberate.
I will click to show your comment so that I can respond to this. This IS an open forum for people to discuss refereeing. You don’t need to know the LOTG inside and out to post here. But I’ll say why yours in particular are bad and why I just did ignore. You don’t come in here genuinely asking about a situation for referee POV. Let's take your question about PSG-Newcastle. Do you come in saying "anyone watching this game, at this minute, can someone explain the decision?” No, instead you describe some referee calamity and how it shows how stupid, unclear, or nonsensical [insert law] is, while also claiming how “no one expects this decision”. Then when we get the actual footage of what happened, which is never anything close to your description as is also the case here, people explain to you why the call is what it is. And instead of accepting it and using it as a learning experience to better understand things, you fight back and argue about the explanation of why it was correct. And like Mass said, you pretty much have willfull ignorance at this point. You claimed you didn't have the video before posting, but assuming you watched it live, you would have seen all the replays plus the VAR review. You can clearly see the ball about to go past behind him, he moves his arm forward, slaps the ball and changes the path to go in front of him. It's a clear handball and, for once, one of the rare "deliberate" handballs rather than "unnaturally bigger". Yet you claimed even after seeing tons of replays that "the ball never changed direction". You are literally watching the reality in front of you and then come here to describe the "reality" of what happened, which is nowhere near the truth, and how it shows the latest IFAB rule interpretation crisis. So at some point it’s just banging our heads into the wall. People explain something to you, you argue about why their explanation is wrong, and then you come back a week later doing the exact same thing. You come in with a biased opinion on how it’s another referee screwup and literally never accept the answers telling you why it’s correct, instead your response is always that every explanation you get confused you even more and how stupid that rule is
Yeah it is one of the rare cases of “deliberate” handball. Seemed pretty obvious to me. Ball going behind him, moves his arm forward into its path to slap it in front of him
https://law5-theref.blogspot.com/2026/02/champions-league-202526-referee.html?m=1 UEFA isn’t FIFA. But these assignments are still interesting to see now. Makkelie with a big one and maybe a thankless task in Istanbul, though it helps it’s leg 1.
If anything this is an argument for better publicity for rule changes, not for changing the rules to be more like the viewers want. But I'd argue many (most?) fans wouldn't care and many (most?) commentators wouldn't take advantage of whatever FIFA did. You just have to see somebody like Taylor Twellman posting about calls on social media despite being corrected multiple times to realize its a no-win situation for FIFA. Hell, the number of times I see from lifelong fans in England that it can't be offside because the ball went backwards, a rule that's essentially never existed and certainly hasn't been a point of reference in decades means that any real attempt is just going to get ignored anyway.
watching in Spanish...but the RM match has been delayed with Vini apparently complaining about possible racial abuse.
Yes, the Real Madrid/Benefica game was stopped for nearly 10 minutes. After Vini's goal, he runs to the corner flag and is cautioned for excessive celebration. Benefica's Prestianni puts his shirt over his mouth and says something before the kickoff. Vini runs to Letexier and tells him what the comment was. Letexier gives the "captains only" signal and the game is delayed with folks yelling at each other. Prestianni cautioned in the 78th minute for an awful dive. He's subbed by Mourinho in the 80th minute.
Just curious - how would any of you react if a player on team A said he/she was racially abused by a player on team B (assuming neither you or the ARs heard it)?
Seems like a textbook no-penalty decision, so I'm more than intrigued that it was given at a UEFA competition via VAR.
Wtf, usually UEFA gets stuff right. Isn’t this a bracing arm natural position? Also here’s one from women’s champions league, how nice for a referee to actually get a DOGSO right even though the attacker tried to fight through it instead of immediately flopping to the ground https://streamain.com/en/zhTfiGUAIyUQvTL/watch
Not much differently than what we saw yesterday. 2 years ago I had a USSF match where a player made an allegation. I stopped the match, of course the person who they accused of making the comment denied it and then I approached the head coach of each team to notify them of what the alleged comment was. Although I strongly suspected there was truth to it because of past experience with the clubs involved, there was nothing I could do other than report it to everyone involved with the match. It also happened last fall in a high soccer match as an allegation was made by 5 players that the goalscorer made a racial remark right after scoring. HS soccer is less than 1% of my officiating experience and was shocked to be told that there was nothing for me to report because we didn't hear it. This coming from a state where it is mandatory to read a "Sportsmanship Statement" which covers that "this will not be tolerated". At the bare minimum, I would have thought the state office would want to know if there is a pattern with certain schools. In both cases it was awkward to restart the match, but ended with no further issues.
Just to play devil's advocate, why not a penalty from the last arm grab in the box? And then if you give it, do you still give a red card for dogso without a legitimate attempt on the ball, or does a yellow card suffice?
So the argument, as I understand it, is that the player is not sliding to challenge for the ball but jumping to block a shot and is trying to make himself as big as possible. So, per the RAP in UEFA, this is a punishable handball. I love the logic. I ascribe to it. I think this should be a handball. But, if true, UEFA is the first place where I've heard that this nuance is delineated.
Guy gets cleated on the of the side of the forehead and the call is....corner kick? With the good positioning, I can't imagine he actually missed this. Was the thought process "Defender got the ball first"? It's rarely called nowdays and if it is, it's because of VAR (like on this play). ATALANTA WIN THE TIE WITH THE LAST KICK OF THE GAME ⚫️🔵Incredible scenes in Bergamo as Lazar Samardžić's 98th minute penalty sends Atalanta to the #UCL round of 16 🤯 pic.twitter.com/bcliaFTVaP— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) February 25, 2026
Yes, correct but they got it sorted out with the second yellow to the defender and then also 2 bench red cards.
If the Dortmund player gets there first, is it still a penalty and a card? If so, is it because the studs were up? Also, One thing I noticed from the broadcast was that the VAR check was listed as for a potential red card, not a potential penalty.
Apparently there’s real “controversy” going on today multiple second yellows across matches, gotta check in later
Interesting red for Juventus. Given as a 2CT on the field, upgraded to red via VAR. https://v.redd.it/51tmd24mhplg1/CMAF_1080.mp4?source=fallback