[Guest]

There is no way that it was a penalty.
The ball was clearly kicked INTO HIS HAND. Look where his hand is and see where the ball is kicked. Think about how fast the ball was travelling, there is no way he could have got his hand out of his way.

Also what about France's poor sportsmanship 2 mins into extra time, when FIGO went down and Lizarazu chose not to put the ball out, but played a thru ball when he CLEARLY SAW FIGO (1 metre away from him) on the ground.

Anway, well Portugal.

Below is the official rules from the FIFA Site concerning handballs

A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a
player commits any of the following four offences:

HANDLES THE BALL DELIBERATELY!!!! (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)


tackles an opponent to gain possession of the ball, making contact with the opponent before touching the ball
holds an opponent spits at an opponent

A direct free kick is taken from where the offence occurred.*

Penalty Kick

A penalty kick is awarded if any of the above ten offences is committed by a player inside his own penalty area, irrespective of the position of the ball, provided it is in play.

 

[gOD]

i'm gonna react to this only once. i'm sad portugal is out i'm even sadder that france play the final (great players but a very negative way of playing football 7 defenders!) but i have to be honest abel xavier made a movement to the ball though it so it was penalty. sad but true.

 

[Santamaria]

No he didn't. You've watched this on slow motion a lot obviously. This is dangerous as it completely removes the speed the ball was travelling at (probably over 100km from a distance of about 2 metres) from the equation.

His hand was moving (as he fell)and the ball hit it, he didn't move his hand after seeing the flight of the ball - this would clearly be impossible.

Watching the slow-mo is only useful for determining that the ball hit the hand.

According to the rules of the game a foul only occurrs when the ball is deliberately handled. The real question is why so many refs and linesman (as well as fans) don't realise this key distinction.

Given the speed of the ball and the distance it had to travel it would be impossible for him to have seen the ball and moved his hand towards it. Any movement was either started before the ball was kicked or an instinctive flinch caused by the bodies natural urge for self preservation once it's aware of an object hurtling towards it. There is no time for the brain to sent an specific instruction to the hand to carry out an instruction to deliberately block the ball.

therefore clearly according to the rules -- NO PENALTY.
It was not physiologically possible for him to have committed a foul of deliberate handball.