Croatia would have got away with it before VAR. In the rules of the game it was a pen'.

Rules of the game its not a pen. 'Deliberate Act' and that's what the referee has interpreted it as, pretty awful why he changed his mind is beyond me.

Everyone can see Croatia were better from start to finish, but that doesn't always do it does it - cruel. 3rd goal for France where they went to sleep on Droba was the killer.

100% agree Towdlad. Happy enough with goal line technology but scrap the rest of it. It's bad enough already with 4th officials interfering. Hopefully it will always prove too expensive to introduce at our level.

Of course the hand came down. Thats what happens when you jump into the air, its the mechanics of jumping. Try it. When you leap into the air, you raise your arms and as such the hands are also in the air. At the apex of the leap the hands and arms begin to come down.

In this case, the French guy, who is in front, lunges forward to head the ball but misses. The ball in effect runs down his back and meets the Croat's hand and knee (hand first) which are in a downward motion from the apex of the leap. The ball does clearly hit the hand, but it is more ball to hand rather than hand ball, which are two separate things.

In real time, all this happens in a nano second, and I doubt whether the Croat was aware of it happening at that moment, as he too had gone to head the ball.

Deliberate use of the hand to gain an advantage.....??? Really.....? Not in a million years never mind a week.

Player put his hand down obstructing the ball getting through. Harsh but fact. France was the side most likely. Who wants to see a pedestrian side like Croatia win it. Belgium were the 2nd best side there. Brazil would have done better if they hadn't have played Neymar & Jesus.

"A handball occurs if any player, other than the team's goalkeeper within his own penalty area, deliberately handles the ball when in play." If anyone thinks Perisic had the time and inclination to 'deliberately' handle the ball, one nano-second after the French guy in front of him missed his header, then they must think he is superman.

Because the appalling decision was made in a World Cup Final, it now sets a precedent for all football throughout the world and we will see the most ridiculous penalties awarded as a result. Too much technology is killing the game!

VAR if it's going to come in as got to be done independently by people qualified to do it. You don't get the umpire at Wimbledon or at Test matches making the decision after a review.

It'd be great to have VAR in operation. Can't wait. It'll add another dimension to the game. I'd say it'd help to stop the cheating which is prevalent in today's game.

My thinking on VAR has crystalised a bit during the World Cup. A few basic principles inform my thinking on it.

Nothing will stop players cheating when they can. Use of VAR in the World Cup hasn't stopped it. Players will still appeal when they know they have it wrong, will dive, will feign injury, waste time etc. Sadly, the rewards for winning are so great that players will do the wrong thing if they think that doing so will help them win.

Use of technology for questions of fact is a big success and should be retained. Goal line technology is the obvious example.

There will always be decisions in football matches however that are borderline judgment calls, and there will always be controversy and mistakes made. VAR is not designed to eliminate that. Nothing ever will. It is designed to eliminate key decisions (red cards and penalties being the most obvious) that referees on the ground get clearly and obviously wrong. I have no problem at all with that basic premise.

In a sport in which goals are hard to come by, a penalty awarded is a 75% likelihood of a goal being scored. Penalties should not be awarded unless there is no doubt about them.

I heard Lineker say that perhaps a penalty should be given every time ball strikes hand regardless of intent etc. He is talking nonsense. That would be turning football into hockey, where players spend more time trying to hit opponents feet with the ball to get a penalty corner than they do actually trying to score a goal. Players would be trying to get into the box to kick the ball at their opponents arms. It would become a farce.

There is nothing wrong with the handball law. For it to be handball there must be a deliberate intent by the player to handle to gain an advantage, by reference to factors such as proximity, natural arm position etc. The problem is that the law inevitably requires an element of human interpretation and sometimes (as on Sunday) those humans get it wrong.

I remain of the view that each side should get one chance to ask for a VAR review in each half. The captain to signal to the ref when he wants to use it. Use it unsuccessfully and you lose it. That would stop (1) this stupid situation of play continuing while the ref holds his earpiece waiting for news, (2) pointless reviews and (3) players crowding referees making square shapes with their hands. Can anybody see any potential drawbacks in that system?