Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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In my own personal definition someone is considered a good match referee when no one speaks about him or discusses his decisions after a football match.
One whom I would normally put in this bracket is Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai, one of the best referees in the world, but his performance tonight in the high voltage UEFA Champions League return-leg clash between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich at the Estadio Bernabeu left a lot to be desired.
A match which was top class, which had a lot that one wishes to see in a football match, was destroyed by the mistakes of the referee and his assistants.
Even if they did not do their mistakes on purpose, which I hope in the interest of football, they handed Real Madrid a number of strategic advantages, like the red card of Arturo Vidal for a foul which wasn’t one though he could have been send off earlier, while Casemiro got away with fouls and even a dive in the penalty area despite having a yellow card and then in extra time both of Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals were blatantly offside. And these were just the decisive mistakes one would have registered, likely there were more over the course of the 120 minutes.
Bayern Munich head coach Carlo Ancelotti summed it up, “We had thought of everything going into this game – except the referee. You can’t decide a semifinal spot like this. It shouldn’t happen at this level.”
“The referee probably wasn’t up to the task,” Ancelotti added.
“I don’t think Real Madrid have any influence on referees. The officials tonight simply got it wrong. I had never been in favour of video technology, but I must admit it’s necessary now,” Ancelotti interestingly ended by saying.
Due to these mistakes in one of the most high profile club football matches in the world, the acceptance of video technology will surely grow as to me it is the need of the hour, not just goal line but controversial decisions as well in the interest of the beautiful game and the referees as well.
And why? Simply because the game of football is becoming to fast and quick for the human eye and errors across the world are ever increasing.
Not always will the better team win, but referees are there to manage the game, not make mistakes…
