This maddening World Cup final won by Argentina on Sunday against France (3-3, 4-2 on penalties) did not need an additional ingredient to settle into football legend. And yet, here is one, unearthed by the influential English media SPORTbible and relayed by L’Equipe : the third goal of the Albiceleste, in the 108th minute, was not valid.
Flashback (painful, yes, we know): after a magnificent three-way action with Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez, Lionel Messi takes a shot from the Inter Milan striker repelled by Hugo Lloris. Jules Koundé clears the ball, but behind the goal line. Nothing to say … Except that on a wider view, we can clearly see two Argentine substitutes entering – slightly – on the lawn, while the “Pulga” has just struck and the ball has not yet entered Lloris’s cages .
These intrusions constitute a violation of the law 3, paragraph 9 of the IFAB (International football association board) which governs this sport: “If, after a goal is scored, the referee realizes before the resumption of play that an extra person was on the pitch when the goal was scored: the referee must disallow the goal if the extra person was: a player, substitute, substituted player, sent off player or team official who scored the goal; play must be restarted with a direct free kick from the place where the extra person was. »
In other words, Messi’s second goal in the game should have been canceled by Polish referee Szymon Marciniak, and the Blues got away with a free kick 35 meters from their cages, glued to the right sideline.
Overall light arbitration during this World Cup
In real life, France got up (again) after this hammer blow by equalizing from the penalty spot by Kylian Mbappé in the 117th minute, before falling on penalties. But this new incident sums up the impression of great lightness left by the refereeing from one end to the other of this World Cup.