The Football Disagreement EngineBuilt on IBM Granite · Docling · Guardian
Buenos Aires“The greatest goal in history.”
the same 4 seconds
London“He cheated.”

Every football AI tells you whether a call was right.
OFFSIDE tells you why the argument never ends — and proves every reason against the actual Laws of the Game.

It breaks a contested call into the four reasons an argument lasts, and shows which ones apply:

  1. 1 Is the rule unclear?
  2. 2 Is the truth unknowable?
  3. 3 Could the ref see it in time?
  4. 4 Do the sides just want their own way?

Same engine on the 1986 Hand of God and this season’s VAR disputes. Every answer is proved against a real page of the Laws of the Game — and a second IBM model checks the first. It never invents a number.

A tool for the people who defend these calls — referees’ bodies, rule-makers, broadcasters — not to re-argue a goal, but to show which gap each one exposes.

▸ Pick an incident — watch the diagnosis change (same engine, different answer). The live ones are unsettled right now.

The Hand of God

Adjudicated, still contested

Diego Maradona scored with his hand against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final. The referee allowed the goal, Argentina won, and the result was never overturned. The handball is admitted — the facts are settled. What stays contested is the acceptable outcome, not what happened.

The ball met a hand above the head — not a header. Obvious now; invisible to the ref in 1986.
The ball met a hand above the head — not a header. Obvious now; invisible to the ref in 1986.

THE SPLIT

Why is this still argued?

Every argument about a call comes down to four questions. OFFSIDE answers all four from the evidence and lights up the ones that are actually the reason here. Click any box to see the exact rulebook page behind it.

It stays contested over what could be seen in the moment and how named sources frame the same fact — not over the dimensions ruled out.

↑ Click any box to trace it to the real source page.

The four lenses

Each lens reads only its own evidence; every reading is audited by a second IBM model before it is shown.

Referee

Supports

IFAB Laws of the Game

The retrieved Law states that it is an offence if a player deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, or scores in the opponents' goal immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental. A goal scored in this way does not stand. Furthermore, where a player denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by committing a deliberate handball offence, the player is sent off regardless of the position of the offence. These clauses provide clear rules for handling handball offences, including scoring directly from the hand or arm and the consequences thereof. There are no competing clauses that would yield different outcomes for the same facts, nor is the Law silent on a decisive element. Therefore, rule-ambiguity does not hold here.

✓ Granite Guardian confirmed this against its source

Tactical

Supports

StatsBomb event data

The aggregate records this goal's body part as the catch-all label 'Other' while a comparable goal by the same player is recorded with a specific body-part class ('Left Foot'). The shot ontology has no category for a hand-scored goal, so the event falls back to 'Other'. This describes the data model only — not officiating, intent, or knowability.

StatsBombOpen Data — used under the StatsBomb User Agreement

✓ Granite Guardian confirmed this against its source

Historical

Supports

Curated historical record

The referee and assistant referee gave differing later accounts of what they saw; neither had a clear, unobstructed view of the handling at full speed. The goal stood and the result was never overturned, indicating the decision was final and could not be reviewed on the field in 1986. Therefore, the decisive truth was not available to the officials at the moment of the call due to a lack of review technology and differing sightlines.

✓ Granite Guardian confirmed this against its source

Framing

Divergent

Named-source quotes

Bobby Robson condemned the goal, describing it as 'scored with the hand of a rascal', not the hand of God. In contrast, Diego Maradona justified it by stating 'a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God'. Later, Maradona admitted to punching the ball into the net, calling it the 'hand of God', showing divergence in how two named sources framed the same event.

✓ Granite Guardian confirmed this against its source