Danny Makkelie provoked fury when he ruled out what appeared to be a winning goal for Tottenham deep into injury time in their Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon after consulting with VAR.
Harry Kane thought he had secured Spurs' passage into the knockout stages with a swept finish from Emerson Royal's knockdown. But after a three-minute VAR check, Makkelie awarded a free-kick to Sporting Lisbon after Kane was found to have been in an offside position.
The Dutch referee's decision sparked outrage in London, with Spurs boss Antonio Conte sent off and players surrounding him at the final whistle. One of the players who confronted Makkelie was Eric Dier who claimed "the ball went backwards".
Contrary to Dier's protestations though, Emerson's body position and the fact the ball went backwards is irrelevant. According to Law 11.1 of the Laws of the Game, VAR got that part of the decision right.
The law states that an attacker is offside if any part of the head, body, feet is in the opponents' half (excluding the halfway line) AND any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.
Kane's knee was ahead of the ball when Emerson headed it across to him, meaning that he was offside. The fact that the ball clipped a Sporting player on its way to Kane is also made irrelevant by Law 11.2.
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That states that a player in an offside position the moment the ball is played or touched by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by: gaining an advantage by playing the ball or interfering with an opponent when it has: rebounded or been deflected off the goalpost, crossbar, match official or an opponent.
The Sporting player did not make a clear, deliberate attempt to play the ball, meaning that the exception does not count. Conte was still left fuming by Makkelie's decision, despite it appearing to be the right one by the letter of the law.
"I repeat you know I don't comment on referee decision but the VAR, this season, I don't know why between Premier League and Champions League, we are not so lucky. I think we are not so lucky with VAR but I think they create big damage," he said.
"I would like to see if this type of decision you can take with a top team, in an important game, yeah I would like to see if VAR is so brave to take this decision. I repeat this unfair decision because the ball is in front of Kane.
"Sorry, but I am really upset because sometimes you can accept this situation and sometimes I think it is not good because I don't see honesty in this type of situation and when I see this I become really, really upset.
"Now for this decision we have to wait to the last game against Marseille and I repeat this decision, yeah creates big damage. I think the club has to be strong because I repeat this situation creates big, big damage. Now we don't know what happen next week. If we go out, then I want to see."
