Controversy over VAR decision as Neco Williams' goal is disallowed

A former FIFA referee has raised concerns regarding the VAR decision that led to the disallowance of Nottingham Forest’s Neco Williams’ goal against Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham Hotspur managed to halt a worrying streak of two consecutive defeats in the Premier League last weekend with a 0-0 draw against Nottingham Forest. While the draw marked Spurs' first point of the season, their performance was far from impressive, as they struggled to create significant threats against Forest.

Throughout the match, Tottenham failed to register a single shot on target and could have easily lost had it not been for VAR, which ruled out a goal from Forest.

In the second half of the encounter, Neco Williams believed he had given the Tricky Trees the lead following a scramble near the goal line. The full-back was determined to convert Morgan Gibbs-White’s chipped effort off the post, but his goal was disallowed for handball after a VAR review.

Sky Sports has now reported that new footage of the disallowed goal shows Williams did handle the ball, although this evidence was not available to VAR at the time of the review. They stated on their X page: “New footage of Neco Williams disallowed goal vs Spurs show he did handball it. It was not available to VAR at time of the decision. So, were the officials right to disallow it based on the evidence they had?”

The Sky Sports Ref Watch section later aired this new ‘tactical footage’, which clearly indicates that Neco Williams did indeed handle the ball. Former referee Dermot Gallagher commented: “We know they got it right because we’ve seen subsequent evidence. Absolutely [from the new footage], you can quite clearly see it strikes his arm. It is the right decision. They [VAR] looked at it long enough. They studied it and studied it, and in the end they came to the conclusion that he handled it. The more they looked at it, the more they were going to be convinced he had handled it because if he hadn’t, they’d have cleared it very quickly.”

However, former Premier League striker Jay Bothroyd disagreed with the prevailing view regarding the original replays shown to VAR on the day. He remarked: “When I saw that straight away [before the release of new footage today], I thought it was inconclusive. You can’t tell from that view. I was looking at the right elbow more, and now that I have seen it, I can see the left hand, but initially it wasn’t conclusive to me.”

Even former Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood shared a similar opinion, stating: “I’m the same as Jay. I didn’t think there was any clear evidence to suggest it was handball.”

Keith Hackett expressed his thoughts on the new footage, suggesting that the decision to disallow the goal was a clear error by VAR. He told Football Insider: “When you look closely on the big screen at that disallowed Nottingham Forest goal, having played it on several occasions, it is actually inconclusive that the ball struck the hand or arm, either accidentally or deliberately. Therefore, VAR should not have intervened. And certainly, on the evidence I have witnessed, the goal should not have been ruled out. The law is specific, and I want to clarify that if the ball does strike the hand and arm, and it goes directly into the goal, then the goal would be ruled out. On this occasion, it is inconclusive that the ball actually made contact with the scorer’s hand or arm.”

Hackett suggested that the officials should not have disallowed the goal based on the replays available to them at the time. He also intriguingly implied that any ‘new’ clips could be ‘AI’. In a post on X, the former referee expressed his views candidly: “This was not a clear and obvious error at the time of the event and the images available to VAR. The goal should not have been disallowed. Oh! New film clip available – have you heard of AI!”

Source: Spurs Web