Ex-FIFA official reacts to Fabianski incident in West Ham draw v Burnley as Sky Sports footage emerges
Dermot Gallagher was happy with Paul Tierney’s decision to award Burnley a penalty in their 1-1 draw at West Ham on Sunday.
Lukasz Fabianski brought Maxwel Cornet down in the area just before half-time when Burnley were a goal ahead but the Ivorian ended up hitting the resulting spot-kick wide of the goal.
Fabianski was booked for bringing down Cornet and former FIFA and Premier League referee Gallagher believes Tierney’s decision-making was spot on.
“I have a little bit of a theory about this kind of tackle,” said Gallagher on Sky Sports News when shown a replay of the incident by Sky Sports.
“The thing I say is, goalkeepers, the only privilege they have is to use their hands in the penalty area. When he makes a tackle like that, he’s a full-back, he’s not a goalkeeper anymore, and if any full-back had made that tackle, it would have been a penalty. It just has to be.
“If you look, he goes in as a defender rather than a goalkeeper.”
When asked if Fabianski should’ve been sent off, Gallagher added: “In the penalty area, there’s this, ‘has he made an attempt to play the ball?’, which he has.
“He has gone in like a full-back to play the ball with his feet, he hasn’t got it, he’s tripped [Cornet] and there’s no doubt about that penalty [and] yellow card.”
Host Rob Wotton then asked Sky Sports pundits Sue Smith and Neil Warnock whether they agree with Gallagher.
Both agreed that they’re “happy” with Gallagher’s analysis.
It was a penalty
West Ham fans cannot have any complaints about this one because Fabianski did bring Cornet down.
Whether he touched the Burnley player or not is a moot point because you don’t have to touch a player anymore to foul them.
Fabianski charges out of his goal, gets nowhere near the ball, may have or may not have touched Cornet and the Burnley man goes down.
Cornet was in full-flight, charging upon goal. If someone comes charging out at him while he’s in possession, he’s going to get put off and could go to ground.
We’re not angry about Tierney’s decision to award that penalty – at the end of the day, it was missed.
However, we are upset with how bad our form in the Premier League has been since January because we feel as though a chance to finish in the top-four has been completely missed.
West Ham’s failure to add to the squad in January has hurt us big time in the Premier League.
All of our hopes now hinge on the Europa League.
In other West Ham news, there’s a big chance the Irons will make a move to sign an international player who’s been axed by his manager.
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