Thread by @DaleJohnsonESPN

We need to clear up a few things on the disallowed Antoine Griezmann goal.

It's turned into quite the mess, with the French FA complaining the goal was disallowed after Tunisia kicked off (which isn't possible by VAR protocol).

So, do France have a case? #TUNFRA #FIFAWorldCup

This all boils down to whether the referee, Matthew Conger of New Zealand, gave Tunisia permission to kickoff.

Because Tunisia did kickoff, and Conger instantly blew the final whistle.

But if Conger hasn't signalled Tunisia to restart, it's meaningless.

I've received a much better video with clear evidence, so reposting the rest of the thread to reflect this.

This video would seem to suggest there is one short whistle for the kick-off, quickly followed by the usual full-time whistle.

There appears to be a small but definite gap between the two.

And that should tell us the referee permitted the kickoff.

streamable.com/gxsg01

If the referee told Tunisia they could kickoff, then technically the Griezmann goal cannot be reviewed.

If he didn't, the restart hasn't happened.

So, he blew for full-time. So how do we go from the full-time whistle to a free-kick to Tunisia and 40 seconds of play?

The situation for any VAR review which results in a changed decision is that the match, in effect, resumes at the point when the initial error occurred.

So even though the FT whistle has blown, play restarts at the point of the offside and the remaining time is played again.

Protocol states that if a review is in progress, the referee shouldn't blow for FT and should just hold the players.

So Conger should just be pausing at the kickoff.

Did he know a review was taking place?

So either the VAR team weren't in good communication with the ref over the review, or the referee lost concentration and got the protocol wrong, knowing a review was in process.

Either way, he shouldn't have blown the FT whistle if he knew a review was happening.

Here's the VAR Review of the whole sorry mess:espn.co.uk/football/fifa-…