James Maddison penalty incident: Should Spurs have been awarded a penalty in the 103rd minute for a challenge from Leeds striker Lucas Nmeka? |Soccer News

Tottenham were denied a penalty at the last minute in a 1-1 draw with Leeds, which could have almost ensured they remained in the Premier League.

James Maddison was brought down by Leeds striker Lucas Nmeka in the penalty area in the 103rd minute with Spurs tied 1-1, but referee Jared Gillett and VAR rejected his appeal.

According to Premier League Match Center, officials felt Nmeka had enough touches on the ball to justify not being awarded a penalty.

Had it been granted, Spurs would have had a chance to extend their lead over 18th-placed West Ham to four points from 12 yards with two games remaining. In the process, they have made great progress toward survival.

But the evidence that Nmecha was able to make enough contact with the ball isn’t exactly clear. And Spurs will continue to wait for their first Premier League penalty of the season, which will take them into their final two games of the season.

Spurs manager Roberto De Zerbi said referee Gillett, who earlier awarded Leeds a penalty for Matthijs Tell’s overhead kick, was “not calm” during the match.

The controversy over the officiating of the match came just over 24 hours after West Ham’s 95th-minute equalizer against Arsenal was canceled out for a foul on David Raya by striker Pablo inside the area. The case took more than four minutes to adjudicate.

Coach De Zerbi said, “We certainly struggled with the pressure today. We didn’t play with passion for the ball, we were too enthusiastic, and the referee wasn’t calm today either.”

“I don’t understand the controversy about VAR yesterday because it wasn’t 100 per cent, 200 per cent, it was a 200 per cent foul.”

O’Hara: That’s a clear penalty.

Former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara reacted to the incident on Sky Sports Fan Club, adding: “It’s a penalty. I’m sorry but I don’t care what anyone says.”

“Can you show me this from a million different angles? Where does the ball move? I don’t think there’s enough movement between the ball and the players. The ball doesn’t move. That’s a penalty.”

“He bottled it up, that referee. We saw a crazy call the other day against West Ham and it was a foul. But they took their time with that decision. They looked at it for five minutes. They looked at[Nmeka’s]challenge for 30 seconds and continued playing.”

There were 49 seconds after the challenge on Maddison before referee Gillett received word that his on-field “no penalty” call was correct.

Is it okay for the mechanical part to touch the ball?

The first sign that Gillett was convinced Nmeka had played the ball was his decision to award a corner after Maddison’s challenge had been made. There was also a linesman on the touchline to help make those decisions.

However, in the past there have been cases where penalties were awarded even though a defender touched the ball.

In January 2025, Arsenal’s William Saliba was penalized for awarding Brighton’s Joao Pedro a penalty despite the centre-back heading the ball before making contact with the attacker on his follow-through.

PGMO chief Howard Webb justified the penalty decision, arguing that touching the ball does not invalidate a penalty, especially when follow-through is concerned.

“Just because you touched the ball doesn’t negate the possibility of a penalty being awarded,” Webb said of the Saliba incident.

“We’ve seen other instances where the ball may have touched a player, but there was hard contact on the follow-through, resulting in a penalty.”