Al Hilal’s Benzema penalty was the right call, says former referee

A former referee has backed the decision to award Al Hilal a penalty for their opening goal of the 2026-27 Roshn Saudi League season against Al-Faisaly, rejecting suggestions that it came from an officiating mistake.

Al Hilal played newly promoted Al-Faisaly on Friday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh in the opening round of the competition.

The home side took the lead in the 19th minute when French striker Karim Benzema converted from the spot. The penalty was awarded after the referee reviewed the incident on the video assistant referee system, with the ball judged to have struck the hand of an Al-Faisaly defender inside the penalty area.

Mohammed Kamal Risha, the former Egyptian referee, agreed with the decision made by Spanish referee Jesus Gil. Risha said the incident met the conditions required for a penalty and that the award to Al Hilal was correct.

“In the 18th minute, it was a correct penalty for Al Hilal,” Risha told Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadiyah.

He explained that the position of the defender’s arm had made the player’s body larger and disrupted the ball’s path.

“The arm of Al-Shanqiti, Al-Faisaly’s full-back, was outside the body’s natural silhouette, making it bigger, and it intercepted the path of the ball. Therefore, it required a penalty to be awarded,” he said.

The decision followed a review by Gil, who initially allowed the play to continue before consulting the pitchside monitor. After checking the footage, the referee pointed to the spot, giving Benzema the opportunity to score Al Hilal’s first league goal of the new campaign.

Risha’s assessment focuses on the key issue in the incident: whether Al-Shanqiti’s arm was in a position that increased the defender’s body area and affected the ball’s movement. In the former referee’s view, those factors justified the intervention from the video assistant referee and the subsequent penalty decision.

The incident was the first major refereeing talking point of Al Hilal’s league campaign, with the club’s opening goal coming directly from the review process. Risha’s comments provide support for the officials involved and indicate that, in his opinion, the penalty was not the result of an error.

The fixture brought together Al Hilal and Al-Faisaly, who have only recently earned promotion to the Roshn Saudi League. It was played at Kingdom Arena in the Saudi capital as the competition began its 2026-27 season.

Benzema’s successful spot-kick therefore became the first league goal credited to Al Hilal during the new campaign, while the decision to award it remains the focus of analysis following the match.