James Maddison says Felix Nmecha never touched the ball in controversial penalty decision vs. Leeds

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 11: James Maddison of Tottenham Hotspur is tackled in the penalty box by Lukas Nmecha of Leeds United during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 11, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images) | Getty Images Ready to get mad? James Maddison, who made his triumphant return to football after nine months as a late-match substitute during Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 draw against Leeds United, came out with his opinion on what was a VERY controversial penalty shout late in the match.

Maddison was bundled over in the box by Leeds’ Felix Nmecha late in the match and appeared to have a legitimate argument for a foul and a penalty that might have won the match for Spurs. Instead, match official Jarred Gillett declined to call a penalty. The VAR team at Stokely Park looked at the incident for about 20 seconds and determined that Nmecha had gotten a very (very) slight touch on the ball, enough for them to warrant that Nmecha bundling Maddison over was not, in fact, a penalty.

Maddison, however, disagrees and posted his rationale on Instagram, claiming Nmecha never touched the ball and that the slight change of direction on the video replay was from HIS foot and not Nmecha’s This more or less confirms my initial take after the match — although I did think Nmecha probably had made contact with the ball based on the TV replays, subsequent replays from the side posted to social media after the match had ended seemed to indicate that Nmecha might not have made contact after all. But regardless of the contact or not, the amount of contact barely reached the threshold of “winning the ball” and it’s still pretty infuriating that A) VAR gave a solid 5 -6 minutes to look at whether Mathys Tel actually made contact on his overhead clearance attempt (he did), but barely gave 20 seconds on what would’ve been a massive, massive penalty decision, and one that could’ve gone a long way to saving Spurs from relegation. Gillett’s decision not to make the call on the field was also, frankly, cowardly.

Had he whistled for the penalty, VAR still would’ve looked at and may or may not have decided to send him to the monitor to review. But by NOT whistling for the foul, VAR had no incentive or inclination to look closely at it, or to intervene to reverse the decision on the field. It’s another example of how VAR protects match officials at the expense of getting the decision actually correct.