The VAR people have confirmed that they looked at the Lamela incident and said " Lamelas arm was pulling the city player and so if with enough force he would have fell backwards but he fell forwards and thus it was a dive " I am paraphrasing but you get the drift .
Also Simon Jordan said and I paraphrase again " Pep last year said that Lorentes goal should not have stood but the deflected goal on Saturday should have stood " the smell of hypocrisy is stinking the football world out .
The new rule reference VAR where no goal should be scored whether accidental or on purpose when the ball hits an arm is a brilliant law and long live VAR . For myself if the Lorente goal was ruled out I would have been pissed but I would understand and except it .
Just as the Jesus goal was ruled out correctly in my opinion the rules don't allow for opinion the ball hits or brushes the hand = no goal
such a clear and simple law . The Var laws regarding offsides is also brilliant because whether a centi metre or a yard offside is offside .
As in real life you can't be a little bit dead you are either dead or alive as in offside not offside.
I am afraid that is the public consumption statement they have put out (they did this a couple of times last season as well, including after the Kane offside VAR goal against Chelsea, when Chelsea had much better angle of same incident showing well offside, and they blamed everyone but themselves for the error). Basically they said Michael Oliver felt the above and the VAR agreed, but the pictures clearly show Michael Oliver was not even looking at the incident, so should be clear to anybody that they should smell something fishy.
Privately in the PGMOL post-weekend debrief meeting with all the referees on Monday, the referees (including Michael Oliver himself) all agreed it was an obvious error and have asked that the protocol be changed, so the VAR can rule on more subjective cases. Basically the referee wanted help in this incident, but the VAR protocol PL use didn't allow it. The PGMOL head will advise them of changes post this event, but nothing will be announced publicly, it will just be tweaking the high level of interference they have set.
I am still in contact with a couple of officials that were at that meeting.
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