The penalty which allowed PSG to equalize against Newcastle (1-1) in added time is clearly considered a refereeing error by UEFA. The European Confederation does not want to “make any comment” on this event, but it has already started to sanction the referees who officiated yesterday at the Parc des Princes. The first concerned is the Pole Tomasz Kwiatkowski, in charge of VAR in this Champions League group match.
He was to officiate this Wednesday evening at Real Sociedad-RB Salzburg, but he was asked to return home by the refereeing directorate of the European Confederation, a structure under the responsibility of the Italian Roberto Rosetti.
Mentioned by the English press, this sanction is very real. On the UEFA side, we believe that the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak, alerted by his VAR assistant, should not have called this hand fault, because the ball first hit the chest of the culprit, that the surface area of the body was not voluntarily increased and that the instructions are clear on the matter.
No recourse possible
Confirming the laws of the game decreed by the IFAB, Roberto Rosetti repeated again at the beginning of September: “In its directives for the next season, the UEFA Football Council recommends clarifying that no handball should be called against a player if the ball has previously been deflected by a part of his body other than the arm or hand, in particular if the ball is not heading towards the goal. »
Referees officiating European Cup matches received these instructions at the start of the season. But they were not applied Tuesday evening during PSG-Newcastle. Which should lead UEFA to give Szymon Marciniak a bad rating for his performance. But no recourse is possible for Newcastle in this matter.
