Premier League release statement on why Dele Alli’s handball against Everton was NOT a penalty

THE Premier League has revealed why Dele Alli’s handball against Everton was not awarded as a penalty – claiming it was because he was “under pressure”.

The game was halted for over THREE MINUTES as VAR Anthony Taylor examined the footage.

PL chiefs released a statement on the reasons why the spot-kick was not given despite the ball clearly hitting the Tottenham midfielder’s hand as he went up with Everton defender Yerry Mina.

Taylor was criticised after initially backing ref Martin Atkinson’s decision not to give a penalty – but then stopping the game again when he was given new footage of the incident at a different angle.
The result was the same decision as the penalty was not awarded in the 1-1 draw between the two struggling sides, marred by the horrific injury to the Toffees’ Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes.

Prem chiefs sought to clarify the situation on the Dele handball afterwards following huge criticism of VAR decisions this season.

The statement said: “The VAR considered that both Alli and Mina were challenging for the ball in the air and Alli was under pressure from the attacker as the ball struck his hand.

“In his view it was not a clear and obvious error.”

Dele had given Tottenham a second-half lead.

But the game was held up when Gomes was hurt after colliding with Son Hueng-min, suffering a broken ankle as his body hit the turf.

Korean Son was sent off – although Spurs now look set to appeal – and the Toffees equalised through sub Cenk Tosun some seven minutes into 12 minutes of stoppage time.

It was not the first time Dele has got away with a handball.

His late goal in the 1-1 draw with Watford clearly struck his hand.

However, VAR awarded the goal to give Spurs a point.