Why was Joao Neves handball against Bayern Munich not a penalty?

Bayern Munich players, staff and fans at the Allianz Arena were in disbelief after Joao Neves was denied a penalty for handball in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris St-Germain.

The players of the German team, which trailed 1-0 at night and 6-4 on aggregate, surrounded referee Joao Pedro Silva Pinheiro at the half-hour mark when Vitinha shot his teammate Neves’ arm in the penalty area.

However, Pinheiro ignored Bayern’s protests over the video assistant referee’s (VAR) failure to intervene and took to social media to wonder why the penalty kick had not been awarded.

According to BBC Sport’s football affairs correspondent Dale Johnson, this was due to a little-known exemption in the handball law.

According to the rules of the game, “hitting a teammate’s hand/arm with the ball he is playing (unless the ball goes directly into the opponent’s goal or the player scores a goal immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team)” is not handball.

“This covers situations where the ball is unexpectedly kicked to you by a teammate, even if your arm is away from your body; the law says you should not give a penalty,” Johnson said.

“When Vitinha clears the ball, can Joao Neves think that the ball will be kicked directly at him?

“Of course this could be ruled out by deliberate handball, but a penalty cannot be expected to be awarded in the context of this situation.”