Alan Wiley yesterday lent his support to his "mentee" Mark Clattenburg over his decision during the Manchester Utd V Tottenham encouter on Saturday.
"What we have to remember is that the goal is within the laws of the game," Wiley told BBC Radio 5 live.
"The game hadn't stopped and so, in essence, Mark was right in law. You're taught right from the very start that you don't stop until the whistle blows or the ball goes out of play, so in law, the goal is a correct goal."
Wiley, who retired from refereeing in July, also rubbished the theory that Clattenburg should have disallowed the goal on the basis that Tottenham had not received an advantage after Nani's handball that preceded the incident.
"I'm sure that Mark must have thought at that stage, at 1-0 to Manchester United and Spurs wanting to keep the game going and Gomes had the ball in his hands, that he wanted to keep the game moving," Wiley continued.
"The situation is that if you're going to think about bringing it back, for instance if a player is fouled but then he loses his footing and he still can't keep control of the ball, then you can bring it back.
"In that situation there, Gomes has actually got the ball in his hands and has actually still got possession of the ball.
"What he then does after that is nothing to do with the referee. If he chose to throw the ball on the ground, that was his choice. He didn't throw it there because he lost control of it, so therefore in those circumstances you're probably giving the goalkeeper two bites of the cherry."
This is an interesting interpretation of the situation. It is no doubt on the defensive as Wiley looks to salvage some credibility for Clattenburg and his employers at PGMOL. However, it is technically correct.I can only presume that Wiley believes that Gomes thought it was a freekick, but this does not discredit his argument of play to the whistle.
However, Wiley did concede some ground on the incident ...
And while Wiley conceded that Clattenburg should have also sent Ferdinand away, he did not believe the England skipper's presence had any impact on the decision.
"If you watch it again, although Rio Ferdinand is having a say, if you watch the actual conversations between the referee and the assistant, they almost blanked Rio Ferdinand out," Wiley added.
"I suppose in hindsight if Mark looks at that again he would have probably moved Ferdinand away as well."
Conceding this, is not a major defeat and the PGMOL have stood by Clattenburg appointing him to next Tuesday's premier league encounter between Stoke and Birmingham.
