Anthony Taylor refereed Germany’s dramatic extra-time defeat to Spain on Friday but the hosts of Euro 2024 believe that they should’ve been awarded a late penalty for a handball by Marc Cucurella
A petition has been launched by angry Germany supporters who are demanding that English official Anthony Taylor be removed from UEFA’s referee list.
Taylor, 45, was in charge of the hosts’ Euro 2024 quarter-final loss to Spain on Friday in Stuttgart and waved away strong appeals for a Germany penalty in extra-time. With the scores locked at 1-1, a powerful shot from German midfielder Jamal Musiala hit the hand of Spain’s Marc Cucurella inside the penalty area.
Germany’s players, substitutes and coaching staff wildly appealed, only for Taylor to signal play on and wait for VAR to agree that Chelsea defender Cucurella indeed had his arm in a natural position. Just as a penalty shootout looked inevitable, Spain grabbed a dramatic 119th-minute winner through Mikel Merino to book a semi-final against France and dump the hosts out.
It’s understood that Germany assistant coach Sandro Wagner confronted Taylor post-match, ‘loudly insulting’ the Premier League and Champions League referee in the tunnel. Now fans have vented their fury with a petition to boot him out of UEFA competitions.
The description of the petition reads: “Anthony Taylor was appointed as referee in the UEFA European Football Championship in Germany on July 5, 2024 in the quarter-final match between Spain and Germany. After a score of 1-1 in regular time, referee Anthony Tailor denied the German national team a clear penalty after a clear handball.
“Despite the possibility of a virtual assistant referee, the referee did not use one to clearly establish the facts. In order not to have to impose this referee on other teams, Anthony Taylor should be suspended as a referee for life for this blatant wrong decision.”
Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann was magnanimous in his comments about the incident, saying that he didn’t feel ‘cheated’ by the decision. However, the former Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich boss did call for the handball rule to be revised.
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“When it happened, I couldn’t see it well and all I was thinking was: I hope it is a penalty, while the Spanish were thinking: I hope it is not a penalty,” Nagelsmann told a press conference. “Afterwards I saw it on television more clearly but at that time that is all I could think. They were more lucky than we were.
“There is a rule and I hope there is no wrong decision. They applied the rule and it was not a penalty. I do not feel cheated. For me the question is about making it more practical, more logical, in terms of how this [handball] rule is assessed. I say this for football [in general] not today.
“You look at the hand, if it is at 3 o’clock, if it is a bit higher or a bit lower. But there are people with bigger muscles than me, different movements. I don’t understand why we don’’ take into account what is happening with the ball. If Musiala kicks it towards Stuttgart centre and it hits the hand, I won’t say anything. But it was going towards goal. And for me, you should look at where it is going.
“Is it going into the clouds or is it going in the goal? In one case it is a penalty, in the other it is not. If it is going into the stands, then it is no penalty. The rule should be simpler. You can’t talk about intentions. You have to see where the ball is aimed. We have 50 robots that bring us our coffee so there should be an AI that calculates where the ball is going.”
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