🚨🎙️Gareth Bale on the Spurs vs Chelsea penalty controversy, explains the laws with regards under IFAB: “If you slow it down frame by frame, there’s no world in football where that isn’t a penalty. You can’t grab a defender like that inside the box, regardless of whether the ball is technically ‘in play’ for half a second or not.” Marc Cucurella was seen pulling down Micky van de Ven during a Tottenham corner, a moment that sparked immediate controversy after the referee awarded a yellow card for the foul but did not give a penalty, instead ordering a retake of the corner. “The laws are clear under IFAB. If a holding offence like that happens inside the penalty area once the ball is in play, it’s a penalty, simple. You can’t punish the foul with a yellow card and then ignore the consequence of it.” “That’s what confuses people. You’ve already judged it as a foul worthy of a card… so where is the penalty? That’s the inconsistency fans can’t accept.” “That’s where football loses people. They hide behind ‘ball not in play’ arguments, but in reality, the attacking movement has already started. Defenders know exactly what they’re doing in that moment.” “If that happens in the middle of the pitch, it’s a foul every time. But because it’s in the box, suddenly we’re rewriting when a foul counts. That’s why Spurs fans feel robbed and honestly, I understand them.”