Ex-Fifa official: Gianluca Scamacca knows he is guilty as controversial West Ham footage emerges
Gianluca Scamacca’s goal as West Ham beat Fulham 3-1 on Sunday (9 October) should have been disallowed for handball, according to Gabby Agbonlahor.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee insisted the match officials should have been able to tell because of Scamacca’s body language.
Declan Rice played in the 23-year-old before he finished calmly past Bernd Leno.
However, he did not celebrate as he waited for the goal to be ruled out for a handball.
The ball appeared to strike his arm as he tried to bring it under control from Rice’s pass.
As quoted by the Evening Standard after the game, Marco Silva claimed the referee was “embarrassed” to give the goal.
“He handled it,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“I don’t this he’s embarrassed to give the decision, he can’t see it. The referee is not going to guess.
“This is where VAR comes in. If the VAR doesn’t rush it and sees what Match of the Day 2 saw with the excellent explanation by Dion Dublin, you’ll see that he handles the ball, touches it and the ball spins the other way – it’s handball.
“What the referee should have done and what experienced referees do is look at the body language of the player.
“You knew from the body language of that player that he knows he’s done something wrong and it’s not a goal.
“I was surprised the referee didn’t pick up on that. We talk about signals from players that give you a feel of situations and this one.
“That one should have been struck off.”
In other news, West Ham could sack David Moyes now after a source’s Mauricio Pochettino reveal.