Fans were left stunned on Sunday afternoon after an incident during Tottenham vs Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Spurs took the lead in N17 thanks to a Rodrigo Bentancur strike from inside the box inside just five minutes. But the home side were pegged back by a glorious Morgan Rogers strike that flew past Guglielmo Vicario in the Tottenham goal.
But while both goals got fans at home and inside the stadium off their seats, there was a moment that left many scratching their heads, and it came just before the half-time whistle.
With the clock winding down towards half-time, Spurs were awarded a free-kick in a dangerous-looking position.
Instead of getting the ball into the box, Pedro Porro played the ball out wide to Mohammed Kudus, who then played a dangerous ball into the box that Mathys Tel should have done better with.
The Aston Villa players, however, seemed to stop, because Porro’s pass out wide to Kudus hit referee Simon Hooper on the way to him.
Normally, play stops when the ball hits a referee and a drop ball is awarded to the team who were originally in possession, but Hooper let Spurs continue and they almost scored from it.
Villa would have been apoplectic had a goal been scored from it, so what are the rules?
The rule
The International Football Association Board (IFAB), who are responsible for the rules of the game, have guidance on what happens during matches. Rule 9.2 states: “The ball is out of play when: it has wholly passed over the goal line or touchline on the ground or in the air; play has been stopped by the referee; it touches a match official, remains on the field of play and: a team starts a promising attack or the ball goes directly into the goal or the team in possession of the ball changes.
“In all these cases, play is restarted with a dropped ball.”
The touch of the referee did not lead to a change in possession, nor did it go directly into the goal, but it did lead to Spurs starting a promising attack. However, the argument could be made that the home team would have made a promising attack without the touch of the referee, because the pass from Porro would have still reached Kudus, hence the decision not to award a drop ball.
It did leave supporters wondering about the rules, though, in the aftermath of the incident.