John Millington

🚨Roy Keane on Luka Vušković’s controversial handball against Manchester City: 🗣️ Roy Keane: “I’m genuinely struggling to understand what football has become when we can look at an incident like that and somehow conclude that it’s not a penalty because it wasn’t intentional. “Since when did we introduce a system where officials have to establish whether a handball was intentional before deciding whether it’s a foul? What exactly are we watching here? “Let’s go back to the incident. Anderson gets the ball inside the box and takes a shot. It takes a deflection off a Brighton player’s head, and then the ball clearly strikes Vušković’s hand. His arm is away from his body, the ball hits it, and it changes the direction of the ball. “Now, I’m not a referee, but I know what I’m looking at. His hand is in a position that makes his body bigger, and the contact has a direct impact on the play. “VAR takes its time, examines the incident and comes back with the explanation that it was unintentional. Unintentional? That’s utter nonsense! “Are we now saying that every handball inside the penalty area should be ignored as long as a player can convince us he didn’t mean it? That’s not how the game should work. The position of the arm, the movement and the impact on the play all matter. “And if I’m Enzo Maresca right now, I’m absolutely furious. You’re losing 1-0, you’ve had two potential handball decisions go against you, and you’re not getting a penalty from an incident that deserves serious scrutiny. “I would be asking the officials what exactly they’re seeing. I’d want somebody to explain that decision to me because, from where I’m sitting, it makes absolutely no sense. “I’ve watched the replay, Gary has watched it, Scholesy has watched it, and we’re all looking at the same incident. You don’t have to agree with every decision, but you have to explain how the officials arrived at that conclusion. “And let’s not pretend Manchester City haven’t had their own frustrations with officials either. We’ve seen them lose important decisions in games where the consequences are enormous. It’s absolute broad daylight robbery, mate! Big decisions are being missed right in front of everybody’s eyes. “And the problem is that this is becoming normal in the Premier League. Every weekend, we’re discussing another controversial decision, another VAR explanation and another manager demanding answers. That’s not what this technology was introduced for. “That’s the problem with VAR. It was introduced to correct obvious mistakes, but sometimes it creates even bigger arguments. We spend five minutes examining an incident, only to come away more confused than we were when it happened. “If a defender’s hand is away from his body, the ball strikes it and that contact changes the direction of the ball inside the penalty area, then I want a proper explanation for why it’s not a penalty. You cannot tell managers and supporters to respect the rules when the people enforcing those rules cannot provide a convincing explanation.” “And please, don’t come back to me with the word ‘unintentional’ as if that ends the discussion. Football is not played with your hands in your pockets. The officials have a responsibility to get these decisions right.”