Despite River's victory over Fluminense, with which it took a more than important step to seek its classification to the knockout stages of the Copa Libertadores, when it ran the 22nd minute of the second half the controversy of the night broke out. It is that Leandro González Pírez, central defender of the Millionaire, tried to block an overflow and pass behind his rival Samuel Xavier throwing himself to the ground, at which time the ball clearly impacted on his right arm, which was supporting. Referee Wilmar Roldán and VAR decided to continue the game. Was the decision okay?
The fact generated a stir. Immediately all the players of the Brazilian team surrounded the referee complaining and protesting heatedly against his decision not to sanction penalty. The situation occurred during the few minutes in which the Flu dominated the match and began to arrive with danger to even the match. However, none of the members of the arbitration body considered that the play was meritorious to be sanctioned as a penalty.
What to take into account in this type of play? If Gonzalez Pírez used his arm to support himself during his sweep or if, on the contrary, he intended to expand the volume of his body and thus try to cut the back pass. Based on this, it is worth resorting to the regulation.
According to rule 12.1 of the IFAB (Association responsible for the rules of the game worldwide) regulations, not all contact with the hand within the area is valid to decree the maximum penalty. It will only do so when the player "voluntarily touches the ball with his hand or arm, for example, making a movement in the direction of the ball with these parts of the body; Touch the ball with your hand or arm when the hand or arm is positioned unnaturally and get the body to take up more space."
In addition, it goes on to say that "a player will be considered to have achieved that his body occupies more space in an unnatural way when the position of his hand or arm is not a consequence of the movement of his body in that particular action or cannot be justified by such movement. By placing his hand or arm in that position, the player risks the ball hitting that part of his body and this is an infraction." Based on this, the referees decided not to decree a penalty in favor of Fluminense.
After the match, the audio of the VAR and the analysis that its members made of the action to support the decision taken by the Colombian Wilmar Roldán were released. "Support hand near the body. In the same line of the ball, it is a hand that is in support in the same line of the body, consequent to the action, "they told the referee.
In that way, the body of referees explained why it did not consider that the play was penal.
The word of González Pírez
Once the game was over, the defender protagonist of the play gave his point of view on the controversy. "I was sure I never moved my hand, it's a natural movement and I didn't extend it. I'm not taking up any extra space than a natural movement implies. From the moment he hit me I knew there was no intention to touch or play the ball with my hand," he explained.
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