The French FA are set to complain to FIFA after controversially being denied an equaliser against Tunisia at the World Cup - but have already been told that the result will not change.
A much-changed side fell to a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia in their final Group D fixture on Wednesday afternoon despite having already secured their place in the last-16. Former Sunderland man Wahbi Khazri scored the winning goal just before the hour mark but that was not enough for the African side to progress with Australia instead going through.
It could have been far worse for Tunisia with Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann guiding in a late equaliser for the reigning champions, as he fired home from a poor clearance. However, the goal was chalked off in controversial circumstances.
Referee Matthew Conger was told to rule out the strike due to an offside in the build-up. However, that decision looks to have been misguided with the laws of the game stating that VAR interventions cannot be made after play has restarted - as it did at the Education City Stadium.
“If play has stopped and restarted, the referee may only undertake a 'review', and take the appropriate disciplinary sanction, for mistaken identity or for a potential sending off offence relating to violent conduct, spitting, biting or extremely offensive, insulting and/or abusive action(s),” the laws of the game from IFAB read.
Following the restart, the final whistle for the game was blown as Tunisia secured the victory.
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France have been left incensed by the decision and are set to complain to FIFA over the match. Footage will no doubt be analysed to see whether the referee did indeed start play and, should it be confirmed he did, Didier Deschamps ’ men might have an argument.
An official statement read: "We are writing a complaint after Antoine Griezmann's goal was, in our opinion, wrongly disallowed. This complaint has to be filed within 24 hours after the final whistle."
Regardless, it appears that any decision would not alter the final result of the game with further laws dictating that the match would not be invalidated under current circumstances. IFAB’s view on match validity is: “In principle, a match is not invalidated because of malfunction(s) if the VAR technology (as for goal line technology), wrong decisions involving the VAR (as the VAR is a match official), decision(s) not to review an incident, review(s) of a non-reviewable situation/decision.”
Even if the result of the game was changed to a 1-1 draw, the positions of the group would not change.
Les Bleus would still finish top of Group D on seven points out of nine, whilst Tunisia would see their total drop by two and finish on just two - Australia still managing to secure a place in the next round.
They now take on Lionel Messi ’s Argentina in the last-16 whilst France do battle with Poland who secured their place in the next round in dramatic circumstances on Wednesday evening.
