A new camera angle has emerged that appears to show why Japan's controversial winning goal against Spain was allowed at the World Cup.
Despite initial TV camera angles giving the perception the ball was clearly over the line and out of play when Kaoru Mitoma crossed for Ao Tanaka to score the goal that won the match and ultimately knocked Germany out of the competition, it seems it was actually something of an optical illusion.
The law states that the the ball remains in play if the curvature of the ball is on any part of the line, which the VAR decided was the case after consulting replays, including goal line cameras. Put another way, the entirety of the ball and its curvature has to be past the entirety of the line for it to be out. Strangely, no definitive camera angles that showed it was still in were made available by FIFA's host broadcaster, which enraged pundits and viewers.
Instead, one broadcast angle in particular looked for all the world like the ball was out of of play. However, due to something called parallax view, where different angles of perception can make the same object appear very differently, viewers were given an inaccurate picture. A picture from above the goalline has now emerged though which appears to show a tiny part of the ball's curvature is hanging over the edge of the line, thus explaining the VAR decision.
Japan's stunning 2-1 win over Spain meant group rivals Germany were knocked out on a dramatic night despite their 4-2 win over Costa Rica. It also saw the Japanese finish top of the group.
ITV pundit Gary Neville said: "We've got 100s of cameras in these stadiums where we can't miss anything and yet we've gone backwards in terms of demonstrating decisions. Someone in that VAR has seen something that is absolutely categoric that they should overturn it."
Neville's punditry partner, Graeme Souness, added:: "There's 80 million Germans going mad right now, waiting for a picture that shows that the ball didn't go out of play.
"Every TV studio, every pundit, everybody who's got an interest will want to see the picture. Why are FIFA not showing us something which is so controversial and has cost Germany so dearly? Why are they not showing it to us?"
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