Was it Mauro Junior’s hands after the shot by Jens Toornstra, in the final phase of Feyenoord – PSV on Sunday?
The KNVB does not think so, the association announced verbally on Monday, after it had been quiet from Zeist for a long time, despite all the criticism. “We have evaluated the penalty kick. Referee Gözübüyük should not have awarded a penalty. When that did happen, the VAR should have intervened.”
Gözübüyük refused to appear in front of the cameras on Sunday. Anyone calling around among referees notices a fairly large consensus: it would have been better not to give a penalty, although a comment such as ‘elements of a penalty kick’ can also be noted. Precisely because hands also involve interpretation: it is not entirely wrong, but certainly not right.
What are the consequences of the miss?
PSV hoped on Sunday, after the 2-2 of league-leader Ajax at AZ, to increase the chance of the national title by winning at Feyenoord and reducing the deficit to two points, with two more matches to play. PSV led 2-1 until well into injury time, before Gözübüyük gave Feyenoord a penalty for hands. Cyriel Dessers scored. The difference remained four points.
Gözübüyük, whose Turkish name means Big Eye, did not immediately whistle and appeared to be responding to protests from Feyenoord players. He had an excellent view of the situation from his position (photo) and gave a penalty kick, because he saw Mauro Junior’s hand after Toornstra’s shot. The Brazilian turned in his jump, out of self-protection. He hit the ball hard on the elbow, which barely left the body. The arbitrator did not ask for a second opinion from the video arbitrator (VAR), who also did not ask him to come and see the images for himself. Especially not using the VAR aroused anger at PSV. Apparently Gözübüyük was confident and Pol van Boekel agreed with him. The VAR only corrects if the referee makes an obvious mistake.
Is it a big mistake by Gözübüyük?
Hands are the hardest to judge, because of interpretation. “It’s not all black and white,” the spokesperson said. ‘It is interpretation and human work.’ The rules of the game change regularly, in an attempt to simplify things. This is how it has been stated in the rules of the KNVB since this season: focused on this case, it is hands-on if a player ‘touches the ball with hand or arm if this has made the body unnaturally larger. A player is considered to have unnaturally enlarged the body if the position of that hand or arm is not due to, or explained by, the movement of the player’s body in this particular situation. By having the hand or arm in such a position, the player runs the risk of the hand or arm being hit by the ball and being penalized.” These sentences alone indicate how difficult it is.
So PSV is rightly furious?
Yes and no. Yes, because PSV have been deprived of two points and the victory had made the competition more exciting again, with the decision possibly only being made on the final day. Now Ajax can win the title against Heerenveen at home on Wednesday. PSV trainer Roger Schmidt, boiling with anger, quickly calculated that Ajax already had the advantage in Eindhoven, because then Daley Blind’s ball was out, according to him, after which Mazraoui scored, 1-2. ‘Give the Cup to Ajax’, he then shouted into the camera. ‘We would have been at the top’, he calculated on Sunday. PSV three points more, Ajax two off. According to that calculation, PSV had advanced by one point.
Is that calculation wrong?
It’s a bit too simplistic. Ajax’s goal in Eindhoven came in the 74th minute. It was far from certain whether it would have remained the same if the 1-2 had been rejected. Maybe Ajax would have won after all. In addition, the VAR is only allowed to fix major errors. At the time, with that ball above the line, it was impossible to see whether the ball had completely crossed the sideline, not even on screen.
In addition, Schmidt has little capacity for acceptance and sporting behavior is often hard to find in him. He kicked the ball away from Malacia for a throw-in, about twenty seconds before the penalty kick. Gözübüyük reacted very irritated to his action. Who knows, his anger played into the decision to award a penalty. After all, it is people’s work, as the KNVB said.
Schmidt is also selective in his examples, to show that Ajax is favored. PSV won the cup three weeks ago. Two Ajax goals were rejected because only the VAR could see that there was minimal offside. Without VAR, the cup would probably have gone to Ajax. And last week, the VAR had been allowed to disallow a PSV goal against Willem II due to offside. Everyone has their pros and cons with the VAR. Referees are also not clear, whether they have a VAR at their disposal or not.