Rangers victims of 'people having arms' as zero tolerance hypocrisy brutally exposed amid Michael Owen flattery

Raging Rangers' anger over Benfica's penalty was heightened after West Ham were denied a stonewaller to further muddy UEFA's interpretation of handball.

Philippe Clement lambasted the call to penalise John Souttar and his ire will likely be further heightened after David Moyes' side were astonishingly fobbed off over a last-gasp spot kick away to Freiburg. Noah Weisshaupt handled inside the box to deny Tomas Soucek but no spot kick was given despite a lengthy check in Germany.

IFAB rules state the ball hitting a body part first then the arm shouldn't result in a penalty, however, UEFA competitions have operated a militant approach to handball in recent years. But the duelling decisions involving Rangers and the Hammers wasn't lost on Rory Smith who raised the frustration over differing interpretations. Smith – speaking on the TNT Sports highlights show – said: "It's quite confusing why this one was given and the one in the West Ham wasn't.

"John Souttar heads it onto his own, admittedly, I don't know what his hand hand is doing there but it's really close range. It's in a more natural position, it feels extremely harsh that was given."

And the broadcaster's shock was compounded by the decision not to award West Ham a spot kick away to Freiburg over a handball observers believe was more egregious than Souttar's. Smith added: "I agree with David Moyes, the rule in Europe seems to be if the ball touches the hand, in any way, it's a penalty. They have this, almost, zero tolerance policy on people having arms. I don't know what could have been done which negates that rule.

"David Moyes has every right to be frustrated that, as he said, most people don't think it's great that every contact between the hand and the ball is