Young Africans midfielder Stephane Aziz Ki's strike against Mamelodi Sundowns in the Caf Champions League quarter-final continues to be a controversial talking point around the continent.
The Brazilians and Yanga SC drew 0-0 in both the first and second legs of this tight encounter, before Sundowns progressed through the penalty shootout.
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However, many football followers were wondering whether Ki's shot at goal went over the line or not, an incident that could have won the game for the visiting Tanzanian side. If a goal was awarded to Yanga then Downs would have needed two goals to win the match.
On first glance, the strike seemed to have went over the line very slightly, causing many Yanga fans and management to believe that Sundowns were allegedly favoured by the officials.
However, the shot has been analysed in replays since then and when a better angle is used, the ball then appears to be on the line as the entire circumference of the ball needs to be over the line to count as a goal.
CAF instructor of VAR, Jerome Damon has since gone on to explain why a goal couldn't be awarded to Yanga in that incident during the match.
“They can’t say they were completely correct because they did not have that angle to show that the entire ball had crossed the goal-line. The on-field decision stood which was no goal,” Damons said on GameOn on Radio 2000.
Damon added that if the referee had initially signaled a goal and if a review was taken, then the decision on the field would have stood.
“Correct, if the on-field decision was goal and the same scenario played out, there was not a conclusive angle so the on-field decision would have stood as a goal because the refereeing team was not obviously wrong.
“The refereeing team and VAR acted within the protocol which is available to them by checking all the available angles, I’m sure the way they had trained them, they would have also tried to use the offside line and the offside technology,” Damon detailed.
World governing body FIFA makes total use of both VAR and Goal Line Technology (GLT) in major tournaments in the event of a situation of this nature.
“Now the only technology which would’ve been conclusive is the other part of football which is called the goal-line technology.
“Now in world competitions and FIFA competitions we use goal-line technology and VAR concurrently for this precise situation because FIFA and the IFAB know goal-line technology would be more accurate,” Damon said.
The South African had also explained the decision on his social media, X after the match.
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