Linesman: I Saw the Hand of God Goal

January 16th, 2007 | by: WC Bob | Comments Off

Bulgarian linesman Bogdan Dotchev has broken his silence after more than two decades when he took part in the famous Hand of God match between Argentina and England in 1986. Reading his racist and incoherent comments makes me wish he would have continued his silence.

Dotchev lays the blame on the referee in the match Ali Bin Nasser.

But Dotchev insisted: “A European referee would never recognise the validity of such a goal.

“European refs take charge of at least one or two important games per month and are used to big-match pressure.
“What is there for Bin Nasser to referee in the desert where there is nothing but camels?”

Charming.

Dotchev then goes on to give his explanation for why he didn’t alert the referee to the handball infraction which he claims to have seen.

But he claims: “With the ref having said the goal was valid, I couldn’t have waved my flag and told him the goal wasn’t good — the rules were different back then.”

Nice try, but according to British referee chief Keith Hackett the rules were not different and Dotchev would have been well within his rights to alert the referee.