fearing for his safety after he turned down four penalty appeals for Chelsea against Barcelona.The English FA staff who have been pushing their 'Respect' for referees campaign all season must have buried their heads in their hands. The spectres of Anders Frisk, Karl-Josef Assenmacher, Urs Meier and other referees intimidated by cowardly English 'fans' are in the air: Expect press reports of death threats to Øvrebø to arrive today.
The Norwegian's silent whistle remains puzzling, especially when its owner is a veteran of 22 Champions League games, Euro 2008 and is in line to ref at the World Cup next summer. The assistants' lack of flagging, especially for Gerard Pique's cast-iron penalty handball, and the fourth official's failure to stop the technical areas overflowing into chaos are also confounding.
Of course there was a gaggle of explanations in cyberspace last night for the egregious Scandinavian match officials, but the organisers have closed ranks - check out UEFA's official match review for the sort of propaganda last issued by Pravda in the days of the Soviet Union.
That UEFA would engineer to stop another all-English final however is absurd. Roman Abramovich, while not exactly a gangster, has a questionable past involving a train heist and dating Boris Yeltsin's daughter while her drunken dad was dishing out Russia's riches to his closest pals. But that has not stopped Chelsea being welcomed at UEFA's high table and Moscow hosting last season's Champions League final.
Did Barça pay him? I'd hope not. This is the club that has UNICEF on its shirts instead of a sponsor and counted Pope John Paul II among its members.
Match-fixing, whether nobbling referees or players, is a fungus which is uncovered periodically, such as in Italy's Calciopoli scandal of 2006, or in the confirmation in 1997 that Anderlecht had bought
the referee in their UEFA Cup semi-final of 1984.But no, unless we learn otherwise, we have to treat this as just appalling, dreadful, inept officiating. That is not to say Barça have no place in the final. Watch their demolition of Real Madrid on Saturday if you have not already. But suggestions their attacking approach merited advancement beyond Chelsea's more defensive style misses the point that games are won by goals, not possession, shots on target or artistic impression.
Should Chelsea be looking in the mirror? Of course, they should have scored more and stopped Andres Iniesta's late-late equalizer. Penalties can be missed of course and change the narrative of a game to render what-if discussions moot. But still the ref erred badly and the result was unsatisfactory.
One thing we should be glad of however - the post-game grace of that fantastic coach, Guus Hiddink. Imagine if Jose Mourinho had still been in charge at Stamford Bridge last night...
-Sean O'Conor
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5 comments:
The worst call of the night was Abidal getting sent off. If the referee was paid he wasn't really earning his keep. Seems a bit silly to infer that it was a possibility.
mga - Sending off Abidal could in the conspiracy theorist's mind be seen as covering tracks.
Stranger things have happened and you must accept some Italian clubs got away with it for years while we were none the wiser.
But if you re-read the article you will understand that I don't believe the ref was bought, just rubbish, and that I was only highlighting talk surrounding the game.
Agree with MGA on the worst call of the night. The handball on Pique should have been called, but the ref was blocked in his view. His linesman needed to be strong and wave his flag when that happen.
I do happen to think that Essien clearly threw the match by missing that clearance. He was smart to effectively cover his tracks with his cracking volley in the first half;)
As a Chelsea fan, I am angry and dismayed on several levels.
First and foremost, the refereeing stole the match from Chelsea. Counting Malouda's foul inside the box, Pique's handball, and Eto'o's arm-block (you can't tell me that's not a penalty, I've seen them given), there were three genuine penalty claims blatantly ignored. Abidal's red card only cheapened the officiating further. Ovrebo has to realize that he has irreparably damaged his reputation as a referee, and that from now on his every call on televised matches will be subject to the scrutiny and criticism of millions. He deserves it.
Second, though, I'm horribly ashamed of how Chelsea reacted after the game. I can look at their behavior critically and say that the emotionally charged atmosphere combined with the latent adrenaline still pounding in their veins overwhelmed their ability to cope with the situation. But they're professionals and they have to hold themselves to that standard. I might expect the cussing, the fingers, and the confrontationalism from fans, but the team needs to have shown better. Save some face, boys. Walk away.
Thirdly, I have to say that the team let it happen. They didn't finish their chances, they didn't punish Barca's lax defending even before the red card, and they took the match for granted by the second minute of extra time. You might get away with it against Bolton, say, but Barca? Don't think so. They feel too entitled to give up hope before the whistle.
Man, I've been keeping this in for 24 hours now. Feels good to get it off my chest.
By the way, I need to make it known that I watched the match with a mixed crowd, and every Barca fan in the room turned into a right c*nt after the match. The camera showed a crying boy wearing a Chesea scarf and they roared laughing. I'm not saying they represent the entire Barca crowd, or even the majority of Barca's fandom, but for all the smack Chelsea supporters take for lack of sportsmanship, I need to call those numptees out.
Of the IIRC five PK shouts for Chelsea...
1) Unquestionable foul outside the area. Inside is questionable, decision to award the free kick is eminently defensible.
2) Some contact that didn't appear to trouble Drogba, then he flopped. No call is correct (Drogba's theatrics invite a caution for simulation/dissent).
3) Ovrebo appears to be initially signalling advantage for a massive hold on Drogba outside the area, then the ball is tackled away inside. I'm very suspicious of the tackle, but it's eminently defensible to not call that and give the free kick for the hold that occurred outside.
4) The infamous Pique play. Worst call of the night, by far. There's basically no way to argue this as a legal play.
5) Eto'o's block. The ball struck him right about at the shoulder. Even though he had his arm extended above his head, no matter where he had put it, the ball was going to strike something arm or shoulder. I think the no-call is correct here. (If the ball had struck six inches or a foot farther up, I would feel differently.)
The Abidal sending off is very tricky, because it really comes down to whether there was a touch to Anelka's heel (knocking his feet into each other and tripping him) or whether Anelka was just clumsy. I haven't seen a good enough quality replay, from the right angle, to say whether that contact was there. Once the foul is called, Abidal has to go, as he was the last defender (Yaya Toure was about five yards behind Anelka).
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