England fans fume at Euro 2024 VAR farce as 'blind' referee misses handball against Switzerland

The Newcastle full-back had the ball on the edge of the box on the 33rd minute when he whipped in a wicked ball towards the back post.

Remo Freuler ran out to close down Trippier with his arms clearly raised and the ball took a huge deflection that took it away from the Switzerland box.

England players raised their hands to protest what they thought was a clear handball, but Orsato incredibly waved away the protests.

Switzerland then won a free kick just seconds later with Kane marching up to the referee to ask why he didn't spot the handball.

Replays showed just how blatant a handball it was from the Bologna midfielder and England fans were not happy online.

One supporter fumed: "Blatant handball not give. Where do they find these officials?"

Another message read: "How do you miss that handball???"

A third posted: "Hell of a handball to miss."

One other angrily wrote: "See that's a handball! Arms up and making his body purposefully bigger!"

Another said: "Clear handball, referee must be blind."

Orsato appeared to indicate to Kane afterwards that he was waiting for a signal from the VAR.

But the VAR can't intervene for free-kicks unless it's a possible red card offence.

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There would have usually been hoards of players crowing the referee after his blunder, but a new rule has been implemented at Euro 2024 with captains the only ones able to talk to the official.

UEFA said they wanted to set an example for the future generation of football on how to approach officials.

"We are doing this not for the referees or the UEFA Referees Committee, but for football, the image of the game and the next generation. These sessions [with the teams] were very productive," they said.

"All the players interacted in a very good way – they wanted to know how we wanted to apply this open dialogue with the captains and they were absolutely satisfied about this. I am sure it will be a fantastic example for the next era of football."