World Cup: Souness called out FIFA after Japan's winner v Spain | OneFootball

Graeme Souness called out FIFA in a sensational rant following Japan’s controversial winner vs Spain in their World Cup clash on Thursday evening.

Japan’ fell ‘s hopes of qualifying for the last 16 appeared to be fading when Spain took the lead in the 11th minute through Alvaro Morata.

But the plucky Asian outfit turned the game on its head just after half-time.

Ritsu Doan restored parity in the 48th minute, before Ao Tanaka gave Japan the lead three minutes later.

Germany out of the competition.

The goal was shrouded in controversy, though.

It was unclear whether the ball went out of play when Doan squared the ball to Tanaka,

VAR checked the goal and it was allowed to stand, but pictures shown to viewers at home and to broadcasters around the world were inconclusive.

Souness was working as a pundit for ITV and he was furious with FIFA and called them out for failing to release clear-cut pictures which showed the ball was still in-play.

“Not producing a picture says something untoward is at play,” he started.

“Every television studio, every pundit has an interest in this World Cup will be wanting to see the picture where at the end where this happened. In real time, as it happened, the ball went out, the pictures we’ve seen shown the ball went out.

“Why aren’t FIFA showing us something which is so controversial that it just cost the Germans dearly. Why are they not showing it to us? This is enormous, 45 minutes later, why aren’t they showing it? Clear it up for us, please.”

He added: “Mark, we’re getting close to an hour since the incident. The longer they don’t come up with a picture, that last bit would show me that ball is out of play.

“The longer they don’t produce that picture which shows conclusively that its not gone out of play, you’d think there’s something untoward going on. It has to be.

“There’s 80 million Germans, right now, going mad that shows that ball didn’t go out of play. I think every TV studio, pundit, people doing your job [presenting] is waiting, why, nearly an hour later are they not showing it?

“If you’re FIFA why would you create confusion and theories coming out about things going on that shouldn’t be going on. Why would you not want to clear that up immediately?”

Footage proves that the ball was in play for Japan’s winner vs Spain

Footage has since proven that the ball was in play by the smallest of margains and Japan’s winner vs Spain was correctly allowed to stand.

Japan finished top of Group E – an incredible achievement considering they were placed alongside two powerhouses of world football in Spain and Germany.

They will now face Croatia in the last 16. The match will take place on Monday December 5.