European football governing body, Union of European Football Addiction, UEFA, have made a shock U-turn on rules governing penalty-taking following Julian Alvarez’s controversy, MySportDab reports.
A feisty debate surfaced after Julian Alvarez appeared to have unintentionally double-kicked his penalty in Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid’s Champions League round-of-16 second leg on Wednesday night.
The game, which ended 2-2 on aggregate after regulation and extra time, was dragged into penalties where Julian Alvarez’s spot-kick was disallowed after VAR review.
The decision to disallow the spot-kick goal sparked a debate with fans and pundits divided over VAR’s judgment on the incident.
Now, UEFA have issued statement clarifying the position of the body amidst the wrangles. From the statement, the body argued (with video of the incident attached) that Julian Alvarez double-kicked the ball hence breaching the rules of the game.
However, they added the double-kick wasn’t intentional from the footballer. Therefore, they will begin talks with global football regulatory bodies – FIFA and IFAB – for a possible revision of the rules should a player’s double-touch appears unintentional.
SEE THEIR FULL STATEMENT BELOW;
“Atlético de Madrid enquired with UEFA over the incident, which led to the disallowance of the kick from the penalty mark taken by Julián Alvarez at the end of yesterday’s UEFA Champions League match against Real Madrid”.
“Although minimal, the player made contact with the ball using his standing foot before kicking it, as shown in the attached video clip. Under the current rule (Laws of the Game, Law 14.1), the VAR had to call the referee signalling that the goal should be disallowed”.
“UEFA will enter discussions with FIFA and IFAB to determine whether the rule should be reviewed in cases where a double touch is clearly unintentional.”
Real Madrid won on penalties and qualify to the last-8 of the competition due to the Julian Alvarez disallowed spot-kick.
