Not that it would’ve mattered anyway.
FIFA have confirmed that France’s appeal over Antoine Griezmann’s disallowed goal against Tunisia has been rejected.
France lost their final group stage game 1-0 but initially thought they had rescued a point in stoppage time after Griezmann found the back of the net in the 99th minute.
Full-time: 🇹🇳 1-0 🇫🇷
France's Antoine Griezmann has this effort chalked off for offside following a VAR check. Tunisia pull off the upset.
📺Watch live on @rte2 & @rteplayer – https://t.co/lu7hcoQqn8
📱 Live updates – https://t.co/HNeGzv30Hh #FIFAWorldCup #TUNFRA pic.twitter.com/UehFkoSPQr— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 30, 2022
However, after a lengthy delay – which included the referee signalling for Tunisia to kick off again – the goal was chalked off, leaving many French spectators unaware of the decision given domestic broadcaster TF1 had ended their coverage at full time.
VAR had ruled that Griezmann, despite not challenging for the ball, had been offside when the ball was initially floated into the Tunisian box and referee Matthew Conger chalked the goal off.
An appeal was then launched in line with the rules which say that VAR cannot overturn a goal once kick-off has been taken.
But despite their best efforts, FIFA didn’t overturn the disallowed goal and have offered no explanation as to why they stuck by the original decision.
The result would have made no overall impact to the state of the group as France qualified as group winners however it would’ve meant that they would have kept their unbeaten record at the World Cup, with their last defeat coming in the 2014 tournament.
They qualified from a group also containing Australia and Euro 2020 semi-finalists Denmark.
Didier Deschamps’ side comfortably beat Poland in their last 16 tie to set up a quarter-final date against England on Saturday.
A brace from Kylian Mbappé followed after Olivier Giroud made history by becoming the country’s all-time leading scorer as he slotted home his 52nd goal at international level, overtaking Thierry Henry in the process.
