Re: Behind the Whistle: Should Birmingham City's goal have been disallowed?
BeauBarrySheep2It doesn't need commentary or explanations from pundits.
We'd be furious if a goal like that was allowed against us.
It is not at all controversial that it was disallowed.
We would be furious youre right, but that doesnt mean its not controversial IMO.
The rule is:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision
If you freeze frame when Stansfield hits the ball, Buchanan isnt directly within the line of vision (the keeper dives to his right so can see where the ball is going) and so there's an argument hes not clearly obstructing him. Its only when the ball is already in motion when Buchanan gets in the way, and its not like hes making an attempt to play the ball, hes quite clearly trying to not touch it.
So yes, id be fuming if it was against us, but there's enough in there to have the debate and I do wonder what VAR would have made of it.
But the defender trying to block it is also in the goalies “line of sight “.