Sunday, June 23, 2002
Dallas stands by penalty decision
Scottish referee Hugh Dallas insists he was correct to deny the USA the penalty that could have kept their World cup dream alive.
The Americans bowed out of the competition following their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Germany, who have booked their place in the semi-finals against co-hosts South Korea.
They claimed they were denied a spot-kick that could have forced the game into extra-time when Torsten Frings handled the ball on the goalline.
But Dallas believes he was right to wave play on, insisting the German did not deliberately handle the ball in the area, and has already been backed by FIFA for his decision.
He told the Sunday Mail: 'I know there was an incident in the game where the call was for a penalty to the USA when the ball hit the arm of a German player. Without going into detail, as FIFA rules forbid me from speaking about specific incidents, I had a totally clear view.
'We're taught to judge these incidents by watching to see if the arm moves and a foul can only be given if it is deliberate hand to ball and not ball to hand. If it's not intentional it's not a foul, no matter where it is.
'Even in the debrief with the FIFA inspector where we went over the major incidents he didn't have a problem with the way the game had been officiated. And that was reiterated at the main debrief in Tokyo which went well for me too.'
posted by sunny @ 06:14
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