Refereeing body confirms Lens penalty against Auxerre should not have been awarded

The French Football Federation’s refereeing directorate has officially confirmed that the penalty awarded to RC Lens in their 5-2 victory over AJ Auxerre on Saturday at Bollaert in Ligue 1’s opening round was an error. Neither central referee Mathieu Vernice nor VAR assistant Jérôme Brisard should have validated this penalty kick.

The incident occurred in the 12th minute. After Auxerre had cleared a Lens attack — with no goalscoring opportunity — Vernice awarded a penalty for a handball by Arthur Piedfort, who was challenging Lens striker Ismaëlo Ganiou. The problem: Piedfort’s handball was involuntary. The two players were holding each other’s arms, and it was Ganiou who pushed the Auxerre defender, causing contact with the ball.

The refereeing directorate outlined the regulatory framework in its report: “Law 12 provides that a handball offense is sanctioned when a player deliberately touches the ball or when they have artificially increased the surface area covered by their body. In this situation, the defender no longer controls the movement of his arm since it is being held by the attacker. He therefore is not deliberately attempting to touch the ball and has not artificially increased the surface area covered by his body.”

The conclusion is unambiguous: “The handball offense is therefore not established and the penalty is not justified. The video referee should have recommended a review so that the central referee could overturn the penalty.” From the VAR center in Paris, Brisard instead confirmed Vernice’s decision, allowing Florian Thauvin to convert the penalty and open the scoring.

The error is all the more significant given that Jérôme Brisard is the two-time reigning best Ligue 1 referee. RC Lens ultimately dominated the match 5-2, but the opening goal tainted by a clear error not corrected by VAR raises fresh questions about the reliability of the system at the start of the season.