Mohamed Kamal Risha, refereeing analyst for the newspaper "Al-Riyadiah", has settled the controversy over one of the key refereeing incidents from the clash between Al-Nassr and Al-Khaleej, after Al-Khaleej's Nawaf Al-Saadi went down inside the penalty area.
Al-Saadi hit the deck in the 13th minute following a challenge with Al-Nassr's Saad Al-Nasser. Al-Khaleej players surrounded the referee demanding a penalty. He waved play on.
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Risha backed the call. He explained that Saad Al-Nasser got to the ball before the challenge and managed to change its direction, which supports the referee's decision not to point to the spot for Al-Khaleej.
The refereeing analyst said: "In the 13th minute, Al-Khaleej player Nawaf Al-Saadi went down, and it was a correct decision from the referee not to award a penalty, because Al-Nassr player Saad Al-Nasser succeeded in reaching the ball and changing its direction".
Any contact between the two players was accidental, Risha added, and nowhere near enough to warrant a penalty. That confirmed the referee was right to let the game flow.
With that verdict, the analyst closed the door on the debate. Saad Al-Nasser got to the ball first, and the challenge that followed simply wasn't enough to hand Al-Khaleej a spot-kick.
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