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England vs Ghana, despite its seemingly boring 0-0 scoreline, was full of drama from its first minute.
Would it be a major international tournament without England playing like part-time plumbers, part-time footballers?
The answer to that question often appears to be a resounding yes, but England escaped an even darker fate yesterday vs Ghana with a late Ezri Konsa challenge not resulting in a penalty, despite being nailed on, according to referee Christina Unkel.
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England avoided clear penalty vs Ghana due to 2026 World Cup 'directive', says referee Christina Unkel
The referee began her discussion on CBS Sports Golazo with an acknowledgment of a certain 2026 World Cup "directive."
Unkel described this as being a form of guidance to the referees, so that penalties are avoided if there's even "slight doubt" over the challenge in question.
"There's a bunch of consistent contacts not being given," claimed the referee.
"You can then see that the threshold for VAR is: 'Do not give them unless it is so significant, and so clear, that everyone would think you're crazy.'
"The France-Senegal penalty... there's this sense that if there's any kind of slight doubt... it feels like the direction is, it's got to be 110% before you send it down here," she continued.
Unkel described the Konsa challenge as falling into that pattern, despite being, in her view, a penalty.
"I would have rather seen a penalty here. But they want it to be 110%, not something that allows for a clip-debate-analysis," said the referee.
I would rather have seen a penalty here."@ChristinaUnkel believes Ghana should have been awarded a penalty but understands why VAR didn't take a look 👀 pic.twitter.com/kUyXBcHM3NJune 23, 2026
Konsa made a clattering challenge in the tail-end of England's face-off vs Ghana, as Prince Kwabena Adu drove in on goal.
The resulting sequence was calamitous, and hilarious, with the Ghana attacker going to ground from the seemingly mistimed challenge, before Antoine Semenyo blocked a following shot from Prince on England's goal-line.
Still, it appears that referees are beginning to confirm a pattern that many would have initially labelled conspiracy, with England being beneficiaries of exceedingly harsh officiating.
