When Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi collapsed in agony after crashing into the goalpost, few realized the root of the problem was not bad luck, but it was a rulebook technicality.
His teammate, defender Ola Aina, is now questioning why football’s laws are putting player safety second and he’s not alone.
The striker suffered a ruptured intestine a serious and rare injury after chasing a through ball from Anthony Elanga during Forest’s clash with Leicester.
The issue? Elanga was clearly offside, yet play continued because of a directive instructing assistant referees to delay raising the flag unless 100% certain a directive in place to accommodate VAR reviews.
For Aina and many others, the consequences have become unacceptable. “The whole world saw he was miles offside,” Aina said, frustrated and emotional. “If the flag goes up, none of this happens.”
The directive born out of an effort to prevent wrongly disallowed goals may have inadvertently contributed to a dangerous moment, triggering fierce debate around its continued relevance.
Experts like Pep Guardiola has long criticized the logic behind the delay in obvious cases, asking: “Why wait for something to break before we act?”
Awoniyi’s injury may now serve as a tipping point. What began as a debate about officiating protocols has quickly escalated into a broader question: How many more close calls or worse will it take for common sense to rewrite the laws of the game?
