Gomes: Scholes Told Nani To Shoot

Heurelho Gomes has blamed his embarrassing blunder at the weekend on referee Mark Clattenburg.

Despite the referee not blowing his whistle or the linesman holding up his flag, Gomes decided that a freekick had been awarded, then proceeded to throw the ball 10 yards away from where the incident occurred.

Alan Wiley, who Sir Alex Ferguson labelled not fit enough to keep up with the game last season, has confirmed that it was Gomes in the wrong.

Whilst Spurs fans have claimed that the referee played an advantage and with no advantage gained, should have called it back, Wiley confirms that is not within the laws of the game.

“The situation is that if you’re going to think about bringing it back, for instance if a player is fouled but then he loses his footing and he still can’t keep control of the ball, then you can bring it back,” he said. “In that situation there, Gomes has actually got the ball in his hands and has actually still got possession of the ball. What he then does after that is nothing to do with the referee. If he chose to throw the ball on the ground, that was his choice.”

Every single week players touch the ball with their hand, kick it out of play, and foul their opponent without the officials seeing it. Generally though, the players that spot these things don’t decide that a freekick has been awarded without a whistle from the referee or a flag from the linesman. It’s part of the game. Nani felt his shirt pulled in the box. Should he have picked up the ball and placed it on the penalty spot? Gomes bizarrely made this decision for himself at the weekend and paid the price… not that he is willing to admit that.

“In my opinion, the whole stadium saw what happened,” he said. “It is impossible the ref did not see the handball. He did not gesture in any way to play on, like you would normally expect. When I put the ball down on the floor, he started gesturing with his shoulders. He is supposed to use his hands. It was not clear to anyone. It was only when I saw Scholes shouting at Nani to shoot that I reacted. I feel bad, as I let in a goal. But I would react the same again. The ref was not clear. He was not able to explain and show to anyone in the stadium what was going on. Even the linesman was confused. He told me he did not know what the ref gave. He said he saw the handball and told me to go back to the goal, that he would tell the ref what he saw.”