The confusion around a French goal canceled after the end of the match against Tunisia (1-0), Wednesday, November 30 in Doha, led the French team to prepare an official complaint to the attention of FIFA. “We are writing a complaint following the goal of Antoine Griezmann, wrongly disallowed, from our point of view”announced the French Football Federation (FFF) a few hours after the end of the match, adding that “this complaint must be sent to FIFA within 24 hours of the end of the match”.
Led from 68e minute on a goal from Wahbi Khazri, the French thought they equalized with a goal from Antoine Griezmann in the 98e minute. As the players and the referee had all settled down, play had resumed, and then the referee, New Zealand’s Matthew Conger, had signaled the end of the match, the video assistance to the refereeing upset the end of the meeting. After viewing, the referee signaled an offside player from Atlético Madrid and canceled the goal of the Blues. The game then resumed a few seconds, before a new final whistle with the score of 1-0.
Regulation in question
The coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps had already expressed doubts about the validity of this goal, at the end of the meeting. “I am waiting for a response on the regulations”, assured Mr. Deschamps at a press conference. The coach criticizes less the existence of an offside than “the point of settlement”.
“The second aspect is that the referee whistled the kick-off and the end of the match. Does he have the right to return [sur le but] ? I am not sure “he added.
According to an arbitration source interviewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP), this situation does not appear in the protocol for video assistance to arbitration. “Once the kick-off has been given, then it is impossible to return to the offside situation”explains this source.
According to the video assistance protocol seen by the news agency, “if play has resumed after being stopped, the referee cannot carry out an analysis except in the case of mistaken identity or in the case of an offense liable to exclusion such as violent behavior, spitting, biting, and/or hurtful, rude or abusive words or actions”.
Antoine Griezmann, who thought he had ended a series of eleven matches in Blue without a goal, also expressed his doubts. “Referees make choices, you have to accept. We were quite nice because we were already qualified, we didn’t get too upset. But I didn’t understand at all.”he said at the end of the meeting.
At the end of October in the Champions League, a similar situation arose between Atlético Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen (2-2). After whistling the end of the match, the French referee Clément Turpin was called back by the video assistance and awarded a penalty for the “Colchoneros”. However, it was not a disallowed goal.
Solicited in the evening by AFP, FIFA did not react immediately.