• World Cup 2022

France send a complaint to FIFA over nixed Antoine Griezmann goal

France
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The Atletico Madrid forward had a goal disallowed in the dying moments of the 1-0 World Cup defeat to Tunisia on Wednesday.

The French Football Federation (FFF) has filed a formal complaint to FIFA after a VAR review caused Antoine Griezmann’s last-gasp equalizer to be ruled out against Tunisia.

Eight minutes into injury time, Griezmann seemingly spared France a shock loss in Ar-Rayyan. The forward volleyed Aurelien Tchouameni’s ball into the far corner of the net to draw the scoreline level at 1-1.

However, after reviewing the VAR footage, the referee, Matthew Conger, decided Griezmann was offside when Tchouameni sent the ball into the box and, therefore, ruled the goal out to hand Tunisia a 1-0 win over reigning world champions France.

“We are writing a complaint after Antoine Griezmann’s goal was, in our opinion, wrongly disallowed. This complaint has to be filed within 24 hours after the final whistle,” the FFF later said in a statement.

The FFF argue Conger gave Griezmann’s strike and allowed the game to restart before he was summoned to check VAR, which is not allowed.

According to rule 1.10 on VAR from IFAB, VAR cannot intervene if a match has been restarted. Based on this ruling, Conger shouldn’t have been allowed to review the goal and then disallow it.

The FFF hopes FIFA will reinstate Griezmann’s goal as a result, giving France a 1-1 draw with Tunisia. This would leave the Group D winners with seven points from three games, instead of six.

The 2018 World Cup winners next play Poland in the last 16 stage on Sunday.

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