Holloway: I know EU not to blame for handball law – but I’m still sick of FIFA
Pundit Ian Holloway has moved to clarify his comments over Brexit and the new handball law, calling for referees discussions to be broadcast as they are in rugby.Manchester Citys Gabriel Jesus saw what could have been a late winning goal for Manchester City against Tottenham on Saturday ruled out following a VAR review.Under the new changes to the laws of the game which took effect from June 1, any use of the hand which leads to a goal or a goal-scoring opportunity will be penalised, whether intentional or otherwise.1/3IT IS A HANDBALL OFFENCE if a player: deliberately touches the ball with hand/arm gains possession of the ball after it has touched their hand/arm and scores goal or creates a goal-scoring opportunity scores goal directly from their hand/arm (even if accidental) pic.twitter.com/rqkcI6Ptir The IFAB (@TheIFAB) August 6, 2019Holloway was a guest on The Debate show on Sky Sports during Tuesday evening, when he was asked for his view on the issue, after the VAR review had spotted the ball deflected to Jesus off the hand of City defender Aymeric Laporte.The former QPR and Crystal Palace boss said the new rule which doesnt make sense should be got rid of straight away and the incident was not a clear and obvious mistake.Holloway then added: I think that is people telling us what we should do with our game. They should stop doing that I hope we get out, Brexit, because thats what we all voted for. And sort that out because you cannot have someone telling us how to do our own game.Speaking to the PA news agency on Wednesday, Holloway, 56, wanted to make his reasoning behind the analogy clear. After consulting the VAR, referee Michael Oliver has overturned the goal because there was a handball by Aymeric Laporte in the build-upMan City 2-2 Spurs#MCITOT https://t.co/xbuOLtBxge Premier League (@premierleague) August 17, 2019What I said was I am sick and fed up of other people telling us what we should do. I am not blaming the Brexit people for what they have done to football, it is just nonsense, Holloway told PA.No way should they have changed that handball rule when they are bringing in VAR and there is no way we should still be in the EU if we have all voted to get out.Almost 52 per cent of the population voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.Holloway added: It is the same with UEFA and FIFA I am sick and fed up of them trying to tell us how to run our game, we dont need them.Ian Holloway had a spell in the Premier League with Crystal Palace (Peter Byrne/PA)Broadly I said that we were all fed up, our businesses, being dictated to by the EU what we are allowed to do. If you let us get on and let us do what we want to do as a nation, and what we could build, then I think we would be better.I dont think we would have sat down and said, I tell you what, what a great idea, lets change the handball rule to a very cloudy one and lets get VAR to check it on every single goal.The International Football Association Board (IFAB), which governs the laws of the game, has said there are no plans to review the rules surrounding handball. The organisation is made up of representatives from the United Kingdoms four football associations and from FIFA. Holloway, though, feels bringing in both VAR and the new handball rule to the Premier League at the same time has caused unnecessary confusion.Common sense tells you that you dont change a lot of rules when you are trying to implement VAR coming in, that was the problem, he said.It was not VAR which stops Man Citys goal, it was the fact that someone had decided to make a stupid rule up.Holloway added: Where is the clear and obvious mistake which we should be looking for?Why dont the referees get micd up (to broadcast) like they do in rugby?We could do it in easily the big leagues have them say: I think that was a perfectly good goal, could you just tell me if there was a clear and obvious foul?'(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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