The wonderful thing with the rules of football is that the clue to one of the fundamental aspects of the game is very much in the title. Football is a game played primarily with the feet in the same way that despite never having watched a game of Handball, I can safely assume that use of the metacarpals over metatarsals is somewhat encouraged.
Let's get the obvious out of the way. VAR disallowing City striker Jesus's late winner against Spurs last night was a decision that favoured my team and therefore you might say it's not surprising that I would come down on the side of the officials on this one. However, I'd like to point to a blog I wrote 5 months ago around about the time that the new handball rules were announced that shows a degree of consistency with my feelings on the argument of what constitutes handball.
There is no doubt that both the trajectory and speed of the ball were changed after it makes contact with Laporte's arm. Looking at the replays I believe if it hadn't hit the City centreback's arm then there is a good chance the ball would have travelled behind Jesus and straight out of the penalty area.
Was it a deliberate act from Laporte? Almost certainly not although once again only the man himself can truly attest to his own actions but the more important observation and one that the officials made correctly was the outcome of the ball brushing his arm gave City an unfair advantage that would have lead to them claiming an extra 2 points in what is undoubtedly the most competitive top-flight league in Europe. Just ask Liverpool supporters what 2 points at the end of a season means to them! It's the difference between claiming your first title in the best part of 30 years and finishing 2nd ...........
The debate was carried on in last night's Match of the Day show with Danny Murphy echoing Alan Shearer's thoughts that "the new handball rule is ridiculous" and that "it (the handball) wouldn't even have been seen without VAR". As ever, Mr. Murphy didn't really add any substance or explanation to his points of view and was happy to just go with the flow of whatever messers Shearer and Linekar thought. What a surprise that a couple of strikers would fall on the side of the forward whose goal was disallowed......
What seems ridiculous to me would be to argue that gaining an unfair advantage by using an arm deliberately or otherwise shouldn't lead to a free-kick to the opposition. There are many areas of the handball rule that do need to be re-thought (as I argued in my previous blog) but this was a case where the administrators and the officials have got it right!
As for the whole, well you wouldn't have seen it anyway if weren't for VAR argument, what a complete boneheaded statement to make. That's the whole point of VAR Danny! To ensure that moments in the game that for whatever reason were missed by the onfield officials are later rectified. I think before appearing on national television and embarrassing himself again, Danny Murphy needs to meditate on the age-old philosophical brainteaser - if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it what sound does it make?
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