Petition for Germany-Spain Euro match replay over referee mistakes

Spain's Marc Cucurella (L) gets a hand to Jamal Musiala's shot during the UEFA Euro 2024 quarter-final soccer match between England and Switzerland at Duesseldorf Arena. Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

More than 300,000 people have joined an online petition calling for a rematch of Germany's Euro 2024 quarter-final against Spain because of alleged referee mistakes including the Marc Cucurella handball incident.

The initiator of the petition on the change.org website, Erik V, explained his move with several wrong calls from English referee Anthony Taylor during Friday's match Spain won 2-1 in extra time.

The main incident was when a goal-bound shot from Jamal Musiala hit Cucurella's hand in extra time with the score at 1-1. Taylor did not award a penalty and the video assistant referee did also not interfere.

The incident led to a big debate but UEFA had said before the tournament that such incidents as Cucurella's, where the arm is not in an unnatural position, would not lead to a penalty.

The petition was signed by some 315,000 people by Sunday morning but is effectively merely symbolic. Spain play France in the semi-finals on Tuesday.