The European Handball Federation issued the following statement on Friday after the men’s EHF EURO 2024 final match between Denmark and Sweden.
At 59 minutes and 33 seconds into the game, the referee signaled a “passive play.” Moments later, the Swedish defense committed a foul and Denmark was awarded a free throw with two passes remaining before Denmark’s attack.
Denmark’s Magnus Lundin then scored a goal, but the referees decided to watch the replay video to see if there were too many passes in front of the goal. By the time the match was stopped, the time was 59 minutes and 57 seconds.
While using too many passes would be considered a technical error, the use of video replay was the right thing to do as the final 30 seconds were the game changer.
After analyzing the video replay, the referee concluded that there were too many passes and subsequently disallowed Denmark’s goal.
The referees, together with the national team, then revised the time and decided to restart the game at 59 minutes and 43 seconds, the moment when the last pass of Denmark’s attack occurred.
The European Handball Federation would like to state that this was a technical error, as according to the International Handball Federation’s competition rules, the timing can only be corrected if there is a timekeeper’s error or a malfunction of the public clock.
It would have been right for Sweden to continue the game with a free throw at 59:57, the moment the match was suspended after the decision that Denmark’s goal was disallowed.
The European Handball Federation received no complaints after the match. Therefore, no further action will be taken.