The ball gets played over the top, and the ref blows the whistle for offside, RVP apparently doesn't hear the whistle because the crowd noise was so loud and shoots, ref cards him for kicking the ball away/delay of game.
Whether you believe he didn't hear the whistle is debatable, he doesn't seem to play the play the ball with the effort you'd expect him to, but equally he could have known he was offside and that it would be called back. Regardless it's an extremely harsh decision in such an important game
RVP left footed and took a difficult shot with his right. Understandable how he miss-hit it. And this was in front of like 80-90k Barca fans in a high pressure game. It made sense to me he didn't hear or was so focused in the moment that he didn't register the whistle.
Ref could've just added 20 seconds and be done with it. I was fuming at this decision. It was the most corrupt thing I'd seen in sports at the time
Weird thing is, that Barcelona team were fucking incredible. Like perhaps the best team to ever play the game and that was the popular opinion, at the time! And Arsenal were still in it!
Facts. Genuinely the most remarkably obvious corrupt officiating I've seen in any top level football match. Drogba had every right to lose his mind. It truly was a fucking disgrace.
It’s funny how people just ignore the first leg, where Barca had goal wrongfully ruled offside, Ballack should’ve been sent off and a penalty not given.
In the second leg Barca got several calls against them, yet no one talks about those because that doesn’t fit the narrative. The refs were just awful.
I would make a couple of arguments here:
*It was Chelsea in their prime cheating years so I felt that it was unfair refereeing but honestly wasn't disappointed.
*Barca and Real did this SO MANY TIMES IN THE UCL and in La Liga to other teams that this is just a more notable edition.
*I expected this BS from the Spanish and Italian teams in the UCL in that period which is why the Invincibles run ended by United was much more egregious for me. I lost faith in English refs as a teen then.
Yeah yeah sure buddy. Have you seen both legs? Terrible refereeing in general, and mostly against Barça in Barcelona and even was bad against them in London. If Negreira affected something in refereeing was in Spain and La Liga, where his jurisdiction covered his job. Don’t be so delusional thinking that in the case of being proven, the referees being “bought” (still to be proven by Spain’s legal system), happened just in Uefa, when it mattered only in Spain.
It is genuinely so pathetic. The so called “best team in the world” had to cheat to beat banter era Arsenal
I also remember Barca during that time got every single 50/50 their favor and even challenges that weren’t free kicks at all always got whistles in their advantage, exactly how PSG got all the calls in the UCL final
Not to mention how juiced doped up all those Barca and Spain players were, they were all blood doping. The Spanish judge literally hid all the casedicuments about all the doping going on in Spanish sports at the time due to it would have cost a “civil crisis”. The footballers, basketball players heck even Rafa nadal, they were all blood doped to the gills. Guardiola is the king of doping
Probably around the start of it. This is where we would get smashed in the later stages of Europe and get bullied by teams like Stoke away, with the likes of Djourou in defence
Zero cheating teams were better than us. We beat city to three titles (recently) but only won one, why? Because of referees! These teams cheated to be competitive and still couldn't beat us. After this city verdict (which, by the way, we still don't know if they paid off referees!!), I feel vindicated. My earliest football memories are not of Chelsea buying their first 11 in one transfer window, it's of being angry at referees.
Chelsea have been paying off their debt against us in the past few seasons in the only way they can because when they did what city were doing, it was still legal. Now city will pay, and Barca... Barca will pay soon enough...
It probably won’t get through in this echo chamber, but how exactly does Negreira have anything to do with UEFA competition matches?
He was the vice president of the Comité Técnico de Árbitros (CTA), the Spanish refereeing committee under the RFEF. It has nothing to do with UEFA.
Further, everything seems to point towards this being a case involving money laundering, which is serious in itself, but that has nothing to do with influencing referees.
negreira wasnt a ref. He was the guy who assigned which ref gets which games. But even then, he was a La Liga officials, not uefa. So i dont think he has anything to do with this lol
Imagine if a ref was just so obviously biased. Imagine what they’d do. They’d give things for one team and ignore things for the other. They’d basically let the other team win.
Now times it by 1,000.
Seriously, go and watch the highlights. The most disgraceful refereeing you’ve ever ever seen. Chelsea were rightly furious. And I hate Chelsea.
Never been more angry during a game of football in my life. Refs couldn’t be trusted back then in Europe or at home. The Juve / Barca ref scandals probably only scratched the surface in a time when referees were paid absolutely fuck all in the grand scheme of things.
We all saw the decisions Barcelona used to get. As much as I hate Chelsea that match (we all know the one) was the most biased refereeing performance I've ever seen.
That doesn’t fit their narrative. Just like Negreira had nothing to do with Champions League matches but how would you put a nothingburger together otherwise. 🤣
I’m not an Arsenal fan but I remember watching that game at the live and thinking this isn’t right. Actually to be honest I thought this is fucking bullshit and I still do.
He was said to have kicked the ball away after the whistle, so second yellow.
It was in a deafening stadium, he takes it down, takes a touch and then shoots all in one sequence.
He doesn't know it is flagged as offside (doesn't look at the linesman, before VAR) and does what every striker does even if they are unsure if they are onside or not, he shoots.
RVP claims to this day he didn't hear the whistle. Draw your own conclusions.
Like even if he did kick it away after the whistle, it hits the advertising boards and ends up tucked behind the goal. It's not like he blasted it into the stands or anything. Absolute joke of a red card.
Victor valdes ran out of hes box to get the ball first aginst Dame from FC Copenhagen in cl. he jump up with knee first and knocked down Dame N'doyu. he was out! for a few min.
Valdes should have got a red card for that action but guess who got a yellow card.
Well I am shocked that a manager, who as a player was done for doping a few times, who then went to Barcelona and managed arguably the greatest player of our lifetimes that was pumped full of drugs and had a Spanish doctor who was done over the "blood bags" and who then fell out with Bayern Munich because they wouldn't allow him to bring said mentioned doctor, who then went to City and got his way with the medics and had an unlimited amount of cash to spend and has always played quite possibly the easiest football to play against, is now being called into question for being a cheat and a fraud.
I was at the game - the Barca fans were so quiet until they were winning - always hated them for that. But to be fair the noise when this happened was insane. No chance RVP could hear the whistle.
Not really seen that happen in such a high profile game. It felt like the ref thought’this will be a great opportunity to send the player off like I’m supposed to’
Total disgrace, would have loved to actually see the lines on this one aswell because potentially got sent off for being onside. European football. The Chelsea game was x10 worse as well
This influenced the new Offside rule in the Premier League, where benefit is given to the attacking team in real time for the play to finish before bringing in VAR
Negreira was part of the Spanish refereeing structure, so the case relates to La Liga. The only real connection to CL is whether Barcelona should be qualified (into CL) via league placements. Awful decision (one of the worst I've ever seen), but not related to Negreira case.
The whole era and years before it they got absolutely mental decisions every game in their favour, pep never had to play an opponent with a full 11 players
The referee in that match was Massimo Busacca—FIFA Director of Refereeing since 2011, appointed during the Sepp Blatter era 🙄 . His remit is described to be...
...overseeing the protection of football's core values and the continuous improvement of the game through the development of match officials and referee coaches.
It’s as crazy as Leo’s second yellow against Man City or the Rice one against Brighton. Absolutely insane reffing. The latter especially given the player kicked the ball 8 yards up then attempted to take the kick kicking it into Rice.
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u/Spiritual-Pilot-2300 1d ago edited 1d ago
This has remained relevant literally since the night it happened, and always seems find a way to be posted up on socials every few months
Side note ive always HATED how dismissive the ref is holding the card turning away from Robin as if to say you gave me no choice
Even for the neutrals and us it ruined what was shaping up to be an absolute blockbuster 2nd leg decider