28 November 2023 , 23:01
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Newcastle United were left heartbroken by Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc Des Princes, with Kylian Mbappe equalising from the penalty spot in the eighth minute of time added on.
The award of the penalty left Newcastle fans and pundits dismayed, with the ball hitting Tino Livramento's arm after bouncing up off his body. Referee Szymon Marciniak initially waved away PSG's appeals, even booking Goncalo Ramos for his protests, but changed his mind after consulting the VAR monitor.
Mbappe gave Nick Pope no chance from 12 yards, ensuring it's PSG rather than Newcastle who have their fate in their own hands in the final round of fixtures. But why was it given?
UEFA competitions don't follow exactly the same pattern as domestic competitions of its member nations, with some room for manoeuvre in how certain rules are applied.
One of the areas of divergence concerns those occasions where the ball strikes another body part first, with Premier League officials making allowances for those occasions where this happens and the arm is in a natural position.
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Towards the end of last season, the UEFA Football Board included this in a range of recommendations for the governing body. "In their guidelines for the next season, the Board recommends that UEFA should clarify that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal," the findings read, though this was merely a recommendation.
The grey area concerns the question of whether Livramento made his body unnaturally bigger, but many were left dumbfounded. This group included Ally McCoist, who was on punditry duty for TNT Sports and made his feelings known.
"It comes off his chest there and hits his left elbow. I said in commentary if that's a penalty we might as well forget about it," McCoist said. That's absolutely never a penalty. If we are giving penalty kicks for that, at this stage of the biggest club competition on the planet, it's a disgrace."
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Kylian Mbappe made no mistake with his late penalty (Every Second Media/REX/Shutterstock)Presenter Laura Woods then proceeded to ask about the rule concerning players making their bodies unnaturally bigger. Former Newcastle midfielder Jermaine Jenas was also providing analysis, and appeared similarly dumfounded.
"When you look at that decision there, it's one of the most disgraceful decisions that I've seen in a long time," he said. "The reason being is because you look at the nature of the game, all the energy that the players have put into it, and it comes down to a really shocking decision that a referee has made.
"It's a deflection off his body onto his arm - not in any walk of life is that a penalty. You can clearly see it hits Livramento's chest, onto his arm - what's he supposed to do with his arms, wrap them around his back?
"It should be one of those historical wins that really leads them into this last game, AC Milan," he added. "They can still go through, don't get me wrong, but [they've been] absolutely robbed,"