Caused European Championship exit

German penalty rage: UEFA now admits the mistake!

Referee Anthony Taylor incurred the anger of the Germans.(Bild: AFP/Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)

More than two months after the handball scandal in the European Championship quarter-final between Spain and Germany (2:1), UEFA has admitted its mistake. The DFB team should actually have been awarded a penalty, but instead there was the bitter end.

In the 106th minute, Germany's Jamal Musiala hit Spain's Marc Cucurella on the forearm in the penalty area. Anthony Taylor's whistle remained silent and the VAR did not intervene either. A scene that caused a lot of excitement. German media spoke of a "penalty cheat".

Jamal Musiala hits Marc Cucurella on the arm, but there was no penalty(Bild: THOMAS KIENZLE)

While it was said at the time that referee Taylor had adhered to UEFA's handball regulations in the incident, the mistake has now been admitted. As the Spanish media outlet "Relevo" reported, the refereeing commission had informed the international referees that a penalty should have been awarded.

"According to the latest UEFA guidelines, a hand-ball contact that prevents a shot on goal should be penalized more severely and in most cases a penalty kick should be awarded, unless the defender's arm is very close to the body or touches the body. In this case, the defender stopped the shot on goal with his arm, which is not very close to his body, making it larger than it should have been, so a penalty kick should have been awarded," reads a statement from referee observer Roberto Rosetti.