Referee Anthony Taylor ruled that there had been no infringement and the home side were eliminated by a header from Mikel Merino in extra time.
Nagelsmann did not question the legitimacy of the call (many TV enthusiasts and pundits did), but insisted that existing regulations were not fair or easy to interpret.
“There is a rule and I hope there will be no decision,” Nagelsmann told reporters. “They applied the rule and it wasn’t a penalty. I don’t feel cheated. For me, the point is to make it more practical. ” More logical, in terms of comparing this handball rule.
“You look at the hand, if it’s at 3 o’clock, if it’s a little up or a little down. But there are other people with bigger muscles than me, other movements. “
Nagelsmann referring to the component of the rule that refers to a defender’s hand being in a “natural” or “unnatural” position. Cucurella helped because his arm came close to the side of his body and did not extend forward. If any of those things had been the case, he probably would have been granted a kick.
Early in the tournament, in Germany’s round of 16 match, a ball hit Dane Joachim Andersen’s hand while he had his hand in front of his body.
“I don’t understand why we don’t take into account what happens with the ball,” Nagelsmann added. “If Musiala kicks Stuttgart and touches his hand, he probably wouldn’t say anything. But he was going towards the goal. We have to look at where he’s going. Is he going in the clouds or is he going towards the goal? In one case it’s a penalty, in the another does not.
“The rule should be simpler. We can’t communicate our intentions. We have to see where the ball is going. We have 50 robots that bring us coffee, so there will be an AI that calculates where the ball is going. “
The strict letter of the law is. . . still vague. According to FIFA rules, “a player is considered to have made his frame abnormally giant when the position of his hand/arm is not the result of, or is not justifiable by, movements of the player’s body in that express situation. “
Is everything transparent about it?
Nagelsmann is not the only frustrated coach. In fact, Dane Kasper Hjulmand, a victim of his team’s expulsion through Germany, previously shared his opinion.
“I’m so tired of the ridiculous handball regulations,” Hjulmand said.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the newsletter.
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