The Premier League issued an explanation after Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s goal for Manchester United against Liverpool was allowed to stand, citing a lack of definitive camera evidence. Bruno Fernandes\u2019s header was diverted awkwardly by Liverpool\u2019s third-choice custodian and fell on to \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s body. Enhanced replay suggested the ball may also have skimmed the striker\u2019s fingers.<\/p>\n
On-pitch referee Darren England saw no issue with the finish and video assistant referee Stuart Attwell did not recommend a review on the touchline. As the Premier League would subsequently explain on their official Match Centre X account, “The referee\u2019s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR\u2014with it deemed there was no conclusive evidence that \u0160e\u0161ko handled the ball before scoring.”<\/p>\n
The matter was treated as one of evidence rather than intent. The FA\u2019s Law 12 is clear that it is a handball offence if a player \u201cscores in the opponents\u2019 goal directly from their hand\/arm, even if accidental.\u201d In situations where the scorer is the suspected offender, the VAR process must identify a clear and conclusive angle to overturn the on-field decision. In this case officials concluded no such angle existed.<\/p>\n
Reaction online was immediate. Blown-up images that appeared to show \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s left ring finger make contact prompted calls for the goal to be disallowed. “That definitely looked like it hit Sesko\u2019s left hand and got pushed more towards goal” reflected a commonly held view among commentators. Former Manchester United centre back Rio Ferdinand compared the moment to Diego Maradona\u2019s “hand of god” goal, while Arne Slot pleaded for a handball from the Liverpool dugout and club icon Sir Kenny Dalglish tapped his arm in frustration from the Old Trafford stands. Even some Manchester United supporters accepted the ball may have touched \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s hand. “Sesko aka hand of god! Love to see it” was among the fan responses.<\/p>\n
With the VAR process concluded, the decision to allow the goal rested on the absence of conclusive footage rather than a judgment of intent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Premier League: VAR said ‘no conclusive evidence’ \u0160e\u0161ko handled ball; Darren England saw no issue. .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[299,317,342],"class_list":["post-13596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-arne-slot","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-bruno-fernandes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}