Gary Lineker has criticised the handball rule after Nottingham Forest's defeat to Wolves on Saturday.
Wolves scored the only goal of the Premier League game from a penalty in the second half, which was awarded when Harry Toffolo was ajudged to have handled from an Adama Traore shot. Forest's later appeals for a penalty of their own were waved away when Neco Williams' strike hit Toti Gomes before going out of play.
While Match of the Day pundits Jermaine Jenas and Ashley Williams thought the referee got both decisions correct, Lineker was not so convinced. He made his thoughts clear on the rule, suggesting Forest were hard done by when Wolves were given their penalty.
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“Have they made their body bigger? You don’t because your body is your body, but I think they mean by spreading your arms," he said.
“If you’re moving as a person then your arms move. If someone blasts it at you from three yards, in normal speed it can just hit you, but in slow motion it looks like you’re putting your hand out.
“The old law was fine, you know way back when it was just about intent. This is not criticising the referees or VAR, this is criticising a handball rule that is so ambiguous.”
While not so explicit about the handball rule itself, Steve Cooper was less than complimentary about the officiating after the match. "We know the referee well from last season. We had him in the Championship,” the Forest boss said. “We know the differences of what you can get with him. So we knew that was part of what we had to deal with today.
“I haven’t looked at them back absolutely clearly. The fact of the matter is they’ve had one (penalty) and scored, and we’ve had one and missed."
Asked if he felt the visitors should have had a penalty from Williams’ effort, Cooper added: “We know the ref well from last year. Better leave that there.”
And he added about the length of time it took for the referee to make a decision: “The first one, I think, especially. That’s why I’m biting my tongue, really, on how I feel about it, because if it’s taking that long and it’s not given in the first place, then it tells you something. But then there’s obviously influence and surroundings, and all that sort of stuff. As soon as that happened, because we knew who was there today, then I knew we were in trouble in that moment.”
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