Was Switzerland’s Remo Freuler offside before he was brought down by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada?
It is the question that remains unanswered.
And it led to a penalty, converted by Breel Embolo, as the teams drew 1-1 in Saturday’s World Cup Group B match in Santa Clara.
Before the tournament, Fifa put a lot of stock in its new, enhanced semi-automated offside system.
World football’s governing body scanned every player at the World Cup to create unique, lifelike avatars of each one.
It was supposed to provide the most accurate illustration of offside decisions we have ever seen.
Yet we are still waiting for the evidence to prove that Freuler was indeed onside.
“We all think it here [that it was offside],” Gary Neville said on ITV.
“Everybody at home thinks it. Fifa are the host broadcaster and they have the semi-automatic decision that they can show us.
“There is a massive question over that because it is offside in my eyes until they prove to me different.”
If there is one thing that is guaranteed to create doubt it is delay. It creates a vacuum that feeds conspiracy theories. It might give the impression Fifa is hiding something.
We have seen the avatar animations in action in the opening games, and not just for overturned decisions.
We saw an example on Friday, with Tani Oluwaseyi flagged offside before Bosnia-Herzegovina goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj clattered into the Canada striker. Fifa provided the semi-automated animation, even though the video assistant referee (VAR) had not got involved.
It has been the same in decisions which are not close. In Saturday’s later game, Fifa quickly showed the graphic for Morocco goalscorer Ismael Saibari against Brazil even though there was no real question about him being in an offside position.
Fifa has largely been very quick with offside decisions at this tournament.
With an audio alert sent to an assistant when a player is more than 10cm offside there is no need for a delayed offside flag.
The speed of this technology means the more obvious decisions are made quickly – but this was a tight one and appeared to be under the 10cm limit.
