Can the Blues still hope for a draw? The FFF lodges a complaint

The confusion over a French goal canceled by the VAR after the end of the match against Tunisia (1-0), Wednesday in Doha, led the French team to prepare an official complaint to the attention of Fifa, a- she announced. Led from the 68th minute on a goal by Wahbi Khazri, the French thought they equalized on a final cross from Aurélien Tchouaméni on the left side of the French attack, victoriously taken over by Antoine Griezmann after a discount from Montassar Talbi in the 98th minute. While the players and the referee were all back in their places, the game had resumed, since the referee, the New Zealander Matthew Conger, had whistled the end of the match, the video assistance to the refereeing upset the end of the game and after viewing, led the referee to signal an offside player from Atlético Madrid, at the time of the center of Tchouaméni.

The game resumed a few seconds, before another final whistle with the score of 1-0. For TF1 viewers, the end of the match was just as funny since the channel returned to the air after the equalizer… finally canceled. She resumed her broadcast a few minutes later and apologized. “We are writing a complaint following the goal of Antoine Griezmann, wrongly refused, from our point of view”, specified the FFF. “This complaint must be sent to Fifa within 24 hours of the end of the match.”

The regulation in question

The coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps had already expressed doubts about the validity of this goal. “I’m waiting for a response on the rules”, assured 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 signaled the kick-off and the end of the game. Does he have the right to come back (on the goal)? I’m not sure”he continued. “I went to see him. I’m waiting for the answer. You don’t have Mr. Collina’s number (the boss of Fifa referees, Editor’s note) ?”.

According to an arbitration source interviewed by AFP, this situation does not appear in the VAR protocol. “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 consulted by AFP, “if play has resumed after being stopped, the referee cannot make 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”.

Griezmann, who thought he had ended an eleven-match Blue streak without a goal, also expressed his doubts. “The referees make choices, you have to accept. We were kind enough because we had already qualified, we didn’t get too upset. But I didn’t understand at all”, he said. 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 had not reacted immediately.