{"id":79508,"date":"2025-12-01T10:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T10:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=79508"},"modified":"2025-12-01T10:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T10:26:14","slug":"controversy-trails-handball-call-against-onyedika-in-club-brugge-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/01\/controversy-trails-handball-call-against-onyedika-in-club-brugge-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversy Trails Handball Call Against Onyedika in Club Brugge Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By Omoniyi David<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s Raphael Onyedika was at the center of controversy during Club Brugge\u2019s Jupiler Pro League clash with Antwerp FC after a late handball call.<\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred when Xander Dierckx entered the Brugge box and the ball struck Onyedika\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n<p>VAR review led referee Lothar D\u2019Hondt to award a penalty, sparking debate among fans and analysts.<\/p>\n<p>DAZN commentator Aster Nzeyimana called the decision \u201cnot a penalty,\u201d while former player Gilles De Bilde labeled it \u201cbizarre,\u201d though he noted evolving handball interpretations often produce such rulings.<\/p>\n<p>Social media and sports platforms erupted over whether Onyedika\u2019s arm position justified a deliberate handball under current rules. Nzeyimana added that VAR protocols limit subjective judgment, leaving the referee\u2019s call final.<\/p>\n<p>Club Brugge goalkeeper Dani van den Heuvel saved Adekami\u2019s spot-kick, but Antwerp eventually won 1-0 with a late goal from Mauricio Ben\u00edtez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By Omoniyi David Nigeria\u2019s Raphael Onyedika was at the center of controversy during Club Brugge\u2019s Jupiler Pro League clash with Antwerp FC after a late handball call. The incident occurred when Xander Dierckx entered the Brugge box and the ball struck Onyedika\u2019s arm. VAR review led referee Lothar D\u2019Hondt to award a penalty, sparking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":79509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79510,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79508\/revisions\/79510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}