Why did you say that if the 9 ball was hit first, it would come off the tangent line of the 4?? Is that how tangent lines are determined?
It would have been better if you showed both lines for the 90 degrees rather than drawing a line and calling it a tangent line.
The CB heads initially in the tangent-line direction off the last OB hit. The tangent-line direction is perpendicular to (90° away from) the direction the OB heads. I illustrate and explain this fairly well in the
Tangent Lines section the video; but if you want more info, see the
90° Rule resource page.
I believe Marcel's job was to determine if it was a spilt hit and based on what I see it does look like a split hit.
If it were truly a split hit (which is extremely unlikely ... pretty much impossible, practically speaking), no foul should be called. The referee committee's job (during the video review) was to determine if the wrong ball (the 9) was hit first, in which case a foul should be called. The info, reasoning, and demonstrations in
the video clearly prove that the 9 was most definitely hit first. The shot was an obvious foul based on the motion of the CB (and the 9) in the overhead camera video from the tournament.
