The day after France’s 1-0 defeat by Tunisia, in the last round of Group D of the World Cup in Qatar, the French Football Federation sent a formal complaint to FIFA to dispute the disallowed goal by striker Griezmann.
In the 52nd minute of the second half, the attacker scored what would be the French equalizer, but, four minutes later, the referee annulled it after consulting the VAR (video referee). The French complaint is that he would have made the appointment after authorizing the restart of the game for Tunisia.
“This VAR appeal intervened after the referee Mr. Matthew Conger whistled the restart for the Tunisians to play the last seconds of the duel and then the end of the match. In accordance with Law 1.10 of the Video Referee Assistance Protocol published by the IFAB : ‘If the game is restarted after the interruption, the referee will not be able to carry out a review, except in case of mistaken identity or in case of excludable infraction, such as violent behavior, spitting, biting and/or offensive, rude or offensive words or acts ‘”, says the note published on the official website of the French Federation.
After the game, striker Coman stated that the “players [estavam] already focused on the next game against Poland. If the federation did it, it’s because it’s necessary. We would just like to understand if the situation repeats itself.”
For the same reason, French TV TF1 has announced that it will also file a complaint with FIFA. The broadcaster did not broadcast the final part of the match, after Griezmann’s goal, because the management would have understood that the referee had ended the confrontation at that moment. So the transmission was cut off.
“The FIFA referee resorted to VAR when he was not entitled, according to the regulations. It is something that penalizes us a lot,” François Pellissier, deputy director general of business and sports at TF1, told L’Équipe.
“It is harmful for the viewer and harmful in terms of image for us. We were also victims of a refereeing error”, he added.
(With agencies)
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