The VAR official at the centre of the Newcastle-PSG penalty storm has been punished just hours after the Champions League clash at the Parc des Princes. Tomasz Kwiatkowski, the Polish referee, was scheduled to be on VAR duty for Real Sociedad vs RB Salzburg on Wednesday evening but has been stood down.
Kwiatkowski sent fellow countryman Szymon Marciniak over to the monitor in the 95th minute after the ball bounced up and hit Newcastle's Tino Livramento chest and then his arm. Marciniak, rightly, waved away PSG's claims before changing his mind after heading over to the pitchside screen.
In April UEFA's Football Board held a meeting in Nyon, Switzerland, and put forward recommendations that “Uefa should clarify that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal”. The guidelines weren't rejected but clearly haven't been implemented in Europe's premier competition.
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Kylian Mbappe subsequently stepped up and buried the late spot-kick, leaving Newcastle fans reeling from such a painful stroke of bad luck. The Magpies were moments away from doing the double over one of Europe's biggest sides but thankfully still have the chance to qualify for the knockout stages if results go their way on the final matchday.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of last night's controversy, former Newcastle midfielder Jermaine Jenas spoke for the entire fanbase with his thoughts on the incident. "It's one of the most disgraceful decisions I've seen in a long, long time," Jenas said on TNT Sports.
"The reason being is because you look at the nature of the game, all the energy the players have put into it, and it comes down to a really shocking decision that a referee has made. It's a deflection of his body onto his arm, not in any walk of life is that a penalty. It just isn't. So you can clearly see it hits Livramento’s chest, onto his arm – what’s he supposed to do with his arm, wrap it around his back?
"Honestly, I’m fuming. I really am because there is that feeling of, you've been cheated, and I think as a player when you've been out there, and they put everything into that game, and they had to change the way they played in the second half."
