The graphic that shows why Japan’s goal against Spain was legal, and it’s just perfect

The world of soccer erupted yesterday evening when Japan scored their second goal against Spain. The ball rolled across Spain’s bye-line (the end of the pitch basically) before being clipped back for Japan to score their second goal and take the lead against Spain. It led to a shock result, with the Asian side beating favourites Spain, and saw perennial big boys Germany knocked out at the Group Stage.

The outrage over the goal came from the fact that from television replays it looked very much like the ball had gone out of play before Kaoru Mitoma could cut it back for Ao Tanaka to score. However the referee initially gave the goal and the Video Assistant Referee confirmed the goal was legal.

The laws of football - ball out or in

According to Law 9 of the Laws of Football, ‘The ball in and out of play’, the ball is out of play when “it has wholly passed over the goal line or touchline on the ground or in the air”.

The key thing is the “wholly”, which means that even if a tiny part of the ball has not crossed the line it is still in play. Looked at directly overhead there must be a gap between the edge of the ball and the line.

And when overhead photos finally appeared from the game, it showed the VAR had made the right call.

The perfect graphic to show why people thought Japan’s second goal wasn’t legal

These tweets from @Slightly_Random show perfectly why the outrage about the goal... like so many things in life it’s all about the angle. And of the course the use of the Japanese flag is simply perfect...

From above the ‘ball’ is clearly not out.

And yet from here it looks out.

(H/T to https://twitter.com/FinMacD for spotting this one)