FIFA have broken their silence over the controversial goal awarded in Thursday night's World Cup game between Japan and Spain to explain why it was awarded.
Spain had taken the lead in the crucial Group E match, before Ritsu Doan brought Japan level early in the second half. In the 51st minute, Ao Tanaka scored to take his side into the lead, with Japan holding firm for the rest of the game to seal a crucial 2-1 win and dump Germany out of the tournament despite them beating Costa Rica 4-2.
However, Tanaka's goal sparked global debate, with fans and pundits alike left baffled by the decision.
The ball was delivered from the right-hand side by Doan, before Kaoru Mitoma got to it and crossed it back across goal first time for Tanaka to tap home. The ball, however, appeared to have crossed the touchline before Mitoma's final cross, with camera angles shown to viewers back home doing little to prove otherwise.
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The goal underwent a lengthy VAR check but stood as the referees found the ball to not have crossed the touchline.
Immediately following the game, there was no official comment from FIFA on the decision. However, the governing body has now broken its silence to explain why the goal was given.
A post on FIFA's official Twitter account read: "Japan’s second goal in their 2-1 win over Spain was checked by VAR to determine if the ball had gone out of play. The video match officials used the goal line camera images to check if the ball was still partially on the line or not. Other cameras may offer misleading images but on the evidence available, the whole of the ball was not out of play."
The referees on the pitch initially ruled that it had gone out of play and awarded a goal kick before a lengthy VAR check overturned the decision. However, viewers were left in the dark with only one angle of the incident shown, leaving ITV pundits Gary Neville and Graeme Souness scratching their heads.
Souness, who could not understand why replays had not been shown again, said: "Every television studio, every pundit, everyone who has an interest in this World Cup will be wanting to see the pictures.
"It looked to us, in real time, as if the ball went out. Why are FIFA not showing us something which is so controversial. Why are they not showing it to us? This is enormous. It's 45 minutes later. Why are they not showing it to us? Can you clear it up for us please?"
Neville added: "We have moved on enormously in the last few years in respect of technology. We have got hundreds of cameras in these stadiums now.
"We can't miss anything. Yet we have gone backwards in terms of demonstrating clear decisions. That goal was disallowed by the officials on the pitch. Someone in the VAR studio has seen something which is absolutely categorical to say it should be overturned which we have not seen."
Former Premier League referee Peter Walton was able to clear up some of the controversy, arguing that while the ball appeared to be out to the naked eye, the curvature of the sphere meant some part of the ball could be hovering over some part of the line, rendering it still in play.
"I’m seeing the same angles as you, there’s a misconception in law that just because the part of the ball that is on the floor is over the line is out - well it clearly isn’t because it’s the curve of the ball," Walton said.
"We see it often with corner kicks where it’s over the line but not quite over the line. In this instance, what the VAR is looking for is the evidence to suggest to the referee that the ball has clearly left the field of play and on the evidence that we’re seeing, he doesn’t have that in front of him.
"What I would suggest is the goal line technology, those cameras are being used for VAR to discover whether it has left the field of play so there are angles that will show that," he added. "If, however, a player’s boot or a player’s shin has gone over the top of the ball can’t see it clearly then the VAR will say to the referee: ‘I don’t have that evidence to give you, Mr Referee, stay with your on-field decision’.
"We’ll see what pictures FIFA show us but the law is specific, the ball is still in play if the curvature of the ball breaks that line - do we have that evidence to show?"
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