First day of VAR in the EPL yesterday. One thing happened during the Man City West Ham game that confused me. Aguero missed a penalty (saved, Declan Rice cleared). Retake given after VAR, with the commentator saying that Rice had encroached before Aguero kicked the ball, but not only that, the commentator said that if the keeper had saved it for a corner, there wouldn't have been a retake, as the encroachment needed to have a direct impact - which it did, as it was Rice who cleared it.
I'm pretty sure that's a different rule/interpretation of the rule we have seen in the past, where any encroachment at all resulted in a retake. So either the rule has changed a bit, or else FIFA are allowing different leagues/associations to interpret rules differently, which seems fairly silly in the long-term to me.
Bookmarks