No clear error on Nnadi
Marseille were 4-0 up on Sunday and then spent the last quarter of an hour hanging on. Le Havre scored three times in less than 15 minutes, and the 4-3 finish at the Vélodrome came down to two appeals for handball in stoppage time. Both went against the visitors. On Wednesday morning, the French refereeing directorate explained why.
The first came in the 95th minute, when Tochukwu Nnadi blocked the ball in the penalty area, around the armpit. Referee Clément Turpin let play go on. His video assistants pulled him back, a long conversation followed in his earpiece, and Turpin walked to the pitchside monitor. He stuck with his original decision. In its weekly debrief, the directorate said the footage could not show with certainty any contact with the arm, let alone a punishable one. Without convincing images, it ruled, keeping the call was not a clear and obvious error.
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Maupay’s hand ruled accidental
Moments later Neal Maupay was involved in the second scene. The directorate said the Marseille forward played the ball with his foot first, and it then bounced onto his right hand, which was in a natural position. It saw no movement of the arm toward the ball, so under the Laws of the Game the contact was not an offence.
Le Havre coach Didier Digard did not accept that reading. Speaking to Ligue 1+, he said he saw a handball on Maupay and argued the contact disrupted the move whatever the intent. His side are still looking for a first win this season, which makes a point lost on a technicality hard to swallow.
The ruling closes the file for the league, but it will not end the argument in Normandy.
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