Okocha & Townsend Revisit Rojo's Handball Incident Vs Nigeria & Make Their Final Verdict

Published: July 15, 2018

SuperSport pundits Austin Okocha and Andy Townsend have delivered their final verdict on Turkish referee Cüneyt çakır's decision not to award a penalty to Nigeria in their last Group D match against Argentina on June 26 after Manchester United star Marcos Rojo handled the ball in the area.

The former Premier League stars have different opinions regarding the call made by Argentina referee Néstor Pitana in the first half of the 2018 World Cup final when he awarded a penalty to France after a handball by Croatia's Ivan Perišić, but are on the same page with regards to the penalty not awarded to the Super Eagles.

''In general, VAR was introduced to help and improve the game, they never promised that it will be perfect but then it has helped in this tournament to clear some decisions,'' Okocha said.

Commenting on the decision not to award a penalty to Nigeria, Townsend said : ''Rojo has headed it down to his own hand, you can't mean to do that, it's bad play but it's actually not a penalty because he has headed it to his own arm, it's just a bad header.''

Okocha replied the former Chelsea midfielder : ''The only reason why it was not given was because it touched his head before it touched his arm. That was why it was not given. Today, it didn't touch any other place except his hand.''

Townsend concluded by saying : ''This one, we know it is not a penalty as much as Nigerian fans might think it should be given. He heads it onto his own arm, it can't be given.''

Victor Moses had equalized for the Super Eagles five minutes into the second half after referee Cüneyt çakır had used VAR to confirm the penalty call.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : goal.com