It is 0-0 between Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion with 15 minutes remaining in the opening game of the season at Carrow Road. Baggies forward Jimmy Jay-Morgan crosses it into Norwich's six-yard box at pace, flying by the outstretched hand of Canaries keeper Vladan Kovacevic and into the path of Albion striker Aune Heggebo. The Norwegian jumps, seemingly trying to guide it in with his foot but it hits his hand instead and flies into the net.
Did he mean to handball it? Hard to tell at the speed it all happened. Norwich players protest, but referee Tim Robinson and his assistants did not see it and the goal is given.
West Brom lead 1-0 in the Championship match. Morgan doubles the lead before Mathias Kvistgaarden scores a 90th-minute consolation for the hosts. In a league without Video Assistant Referees (VAR), apart from the lingering unhappiness at the decision which contributed to West Brom's 2-1 win, that is normally the end of it.
But after the game something unusual happened. Heggebo became the first player to be charged by the Football Association with "deception of a match official", a little known rule first brought in 2017-18., external Then on Thursday he was banned for two matches. Little detail, reasoning or context has been given beyond a factual statement announcing the ban from the Football Association., external Now attention is turning to what precedent might have been set.
If you gain from something that may well have been accidental – West Brom insist it was – should you own up? BBC Sport explores the fallout from this decision. West Brom's Heggebo banned for 'handball goal' Absence of VAR in Championship is 'crazy' - Clement Heggebo was charged with misconduct, contrary to FA Rule E3.1, by the Football Association on Tuesday.
In his defence, West Brom argued that the ball took a deflection off the goalkeeper before making contact with Heggebo's hand. The Baggies claim it affected the ball's trajectory and left the player with "less than 0.1 of a second" to react. Given the accidental nature of the handball, the club argued, it could not reasonably be viewed as a deliberate act of deception.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
