What the PGMOL said about Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario’s handball vs Brentford 

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Tottenham beat Brentford 3-1 at the weekend, but this game didn’t go by without its fair share of controversy.

Indeed, Guglielmo Vicario was, once again, in the headlines as he handled the ball outside of his area.

Luckily for the Italian, the referee did miss this incident, and to the bemusement of many, VAR didn’t intervene.

Speaking on the Gold and Guest Talk Tottenham Podcast, Alasdair Gold has been discussing this handball, and he’s shared what PGMOL told him about this incident.

Indeed, according to Gold, the PGMOL have said that VAR didn’t intervene here because it wasn’t the denial of a goalscoring opportunity, so a red card wouldn’t be brandished.

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Why VAR didn’t intervene with Guglielmo Vicario’s handball

Gold shared what he was told about Vicario’s handball.

“We got word as well from the PGMOL or part of that process as well that VAR were not going to intervene in that moment because he wasn’t denying a goalscoring opportunity, he’s off to the left, he had some Spurs players behind him, it was never a red card,” Gold said.

“Even Thomas Frank said after the game it would’ve only been a free kick and there was a small percent chance of scoring from that free-kick.”

VAR needs to change

Vicario wasn’t punished for this incident because of VAR’s rules.

VAR can only interfere with potential penalty decisions and potential red cards, and that means that these types of incidents get overlooked even when they are clear and obvious.

It would’ve taken seconds for VAR to check this and award a free-kick to Brentford, but, due to the rules, they had to just leave it alone entirely.

The utilisation of VAR needs to change in order to avoid these sorts of instances, because having the technology there and not using it to spot these obvious incidents just doesn’t make sense.