Ex-Fifa official: Law needs rewriting as controversial Fabian Schar footage emerges from Newcastle United
Brentford’s disallowed goal in their 5-1 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday (8 October) showed the “nonsense” of the offside law, according to Gabby Agbonlahor.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee suggested the law needs to be rewritten as the goalscorer, Bryan Mbeumo, was not in an offside position when he received the ball.
As shown on the BBC’s Match of the Day programme, a VAR review deemed Ivan Toney to be in an offside position when he let the ball run through to Mbeumo.
It was deemed that Toney’s actions had distracted Fabian Schar and had stopped him from defending properly.
“Well, he doesn’t have to touch it,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“What they have deemed here is that Toney has made a deliberate play. Toney has made a deliberate play by lifting his legs. It’s him that they have deemed to have put the player in an offside position.
“That deliberate play there is what has ruled it out. What a nonsense the offside law is, eh?
“The player who scores is onside. In the build up, Toney is an offside position hence it being given.
“It’s the correct decision, in law.”
Mbuemo’s goal would have opened the scoring at St. James’ Park but Newcastle found the net through Bruno Guimaraes just over 10 minutes later.
The Magpies’ emphatic win lifted them to sixth in the Premier League table, just two points off the Champions League places.
In other news, Kieran Maguire has revealed that Newcastle United spending is to soar past £700million and it “will attract real publicity”.