Ligue 1 goal-line technology awards Le Mans goal in Auxerre draw despite glove claim

The disputed goal

Auxerre and Le Mans drew 1-1 on Sunday, 25 October, in a Ligue 1 match settled in part by a contested goal. In the 48th minute Lucas Buades headed a deflected cross toward the short corner, and Auxerre goalkeeper Paul Nardi got a hand to it on the line without keeping it out. Referee Willy Delajod first played on, but the goal-line technology on his watch then sounded and the goal was allowed. Delajod reviewed the images on screen, and they did not clearly show that the ball had fully crossed the line, so the decision stood. According to reports of the system's image, what appeared on the line was Nardi's glove, while the ball seemed to sit exactly on it.

Will Still's account

Auxerre coach Will Still spoke to Ligue 1+ after the final whistle and said the referees had told him only two of the four watches had sounded and that a computer problem had occurred. He called this unprecedented and insisted that the system had mistaken the glove for the ball. Still said that from every angle the goal should not have been given, and that the replay from behind the goal made it impossible for the ball to have been in the net.

“I swear it is his glove that you see in the play.”

Still said the referees had admitted the error to him, a claim the reports attribute to him alone.

Nardi and the referees' explanation

Paul Nardi said he was 300% sure the ball had not crossed the line, yet he accepted the decision and said robots might be better than humans. The French referees' association said that not all watches sounded at the same time, including those of the assistant referees and the fourth official, and that one of them gave no signal at all. Because the VAR did not have an angle clear enough to overrule the referee's technology, it validated the goal. The reports do not give a further technical explanation of the fault beyond these two accounts.

Why it stands out

The goal-line technology was launched by IFAB in 2012, and 20 Minutes noted that such a fault had not previously been seen in Ligue 1. Still described the error as unprecedented, while the match finished level after Le Mans had taken the lead. Auxerre's staff were left with one point from a game they had expected to win on the field, and the club's frustration was aired in public within hours of the final whistle.

What is established

The goal is not disputed as a fact of the scoreboard, since it was allowed and stood at the final whistle. What is disputed is whether the ball crossed the line at all, and that question rests on a system image that Auxerre says showed the glove, the referees' account of partially sounding watches, and the VAR's decision not to intervene.