“Great. Can I call myself a retroactive European champion now?” That was the sardonic response of former German national team captain Toni Kroos this week upon hearing that Europe’s soccer governing body, UEFA, had decided 11 weeks after the event that Germany should indeed have been awarded a penalty for handball in its European Championship quarterfinal game against Spain.
The arm of Spanish defender Marc Cucurella was clearly stretched out when, in the game’s 105th minute, it prevented German midfielder Jamal Musiala‘s shot from heading toward the goal. The score at the time was 1-1. Spain went on to win 2-1, and then (deservedly) become European champion.
Anyone who’s been following soccer since the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was looking at the slow motion replay of the incident that day and expecting that English referee Anthony Taylor would be invited by his VAR Stuart Atwell to take a second look. That never happened. Atwell’s only advice to Taylor was, “Nothing to see here, play on.”
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