General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

Looking at the YouTube quick highlights reel, it's as clear as day a handball by the rules (intentional handball has nothing to do with it as Ayew is the scorer). The ball is crossed to Ayew, he attempts to chest it down in front of him, it hits him on the upper chest and then as the ball is on the way down its hits him around the wrist/upper hand area. This makes the ball sit beautifully in front of him for the shot at goal. Without the intervention of his wrist/hand, his chest down was heading a yard or 2 to the left and away from goal.

It's an appalling VAR decision given the cameras and tv shots they have available. Imagine if that game was 1-0 when that went in. There would be riots and rightly so.

You have to laugh when someone says you don't understand how VAR and their clear and obvious criteria works and in the next sentence they reference whether a handball situation was accidental or deliberate (showing they have no understanding at all of current football rules). The ball cannot touch Ayews hand, deliberately or accidentally as he is the goalscorer, it's a black and white rule. No interpretation needed.

So the only question for VAR is once Ayew has scored, did it touch his hand? I'll say it again, look at the YouTube highlights reel. It is clear as day by the second replay that it hits his hand. I genuinely am not sure what people are looking at. Not alone is the decision to award the goal wrong, it's appalling as it's so clearly wrong. This wasn't a subjective call, no need to interpret accidental or deliberate handball, so it shouldn't have taken more than 2 replays and 20 seconds for VAR to rule the goal out.