These days, it is very hard to find peace after a Champions League game that involves Spanish sides. In almost all cases, refereeing decisions mar the game with controversies. At times, the darkness of these shadows far exceeds the light of the spectacle that the game provides.
The most recent case was the match between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, which was gloomed with terrible officiating and was won by the Blancos. Despite the fact that the Whites played better than their rivals over the course of 210 minutes, their win left a bitter taste in the mouth because of the decisions that went in favour of the Spanish side.
And then came the barrage of heat, especially from Barcelona fans.
The social media platforms were bombarded with GIFs and compilation videos of the calls that helped Real Madrid during the game. From the Madridista end, the pictures of Vidal’s ruthless tackle on Casemiro in the 48th minute, that should have earned him his second yellow, and Bayern’s second goal, that came from an offside position, were going viral.
Amidst all this chaos, the real issue was lost: The referees’ leniency towards the big two of Spain is an ignominy.
It is quite fascinating how people are upset at Real Madrid getting favourable calls and are not actually baffled at the standard of officiating in games that involve the Spain’s big two.
This mentality depicts the mindset many football fans: As long their team benefits from dubious referee calls, all is well, but if some other team gets rewarded the same way, it becomes a global crisis. Fans don’t necessarily protest against poor officiating, they only have an objection when someone else benefits from it.
Where the trend began
Ever since the beginning of Barcelona’s glory days with Pep Guardiola, the trend of officiating has always been in favour of Real Madrid and the Catalans. As if Barcelona under Guardiola weren’t strong enough as they were, it felt as if the referees were also in awe of the Catalans and helped them in a lot of scenarios.
In 2009 alone, Barcelona won six trophies, out of which the Champions League was the most controversial one because of the events that occurred at the Stamford Bridge in the second leg of the semi-final. The referee, Tom Henning Ovrebo, made at least four incorrect decisions that helped Barca to glory.
A year later, Barcelona were once again favoured by the referee in their 1-0 win against Inter Milan at the same stage: The second leg of the semi-final of the Champions League. Sergio Busquets’ theatrics went unnoticed as Thiago Motta was sent off, but Inter somehow managed to hold on and win the tie.
Once again, the following year, the Catalans were trailing 3-2 on aggregate against Arsenal in the round of 16 of the Champions League with only 32 minutes of normal time remaining in the tie. Robin van Persie was sent clean through on goal, but the linesman waved offside, unbeknownst to the Dutchman.
Van Persie then went on to shoot the ball, which didn’t go down well with the referee. He deemed it as a breach of rules and gave the Dutchman a yellow card, which was his second of the game. This decision was baffling given that the match was being played in front of a boisterous crowd of 98,000 people and Van Persie could not have really heard the whistle.
And even if he did, the offence didn’t warrant such a reaction from the referee. Arsenal went on to lose the tie and the Blaugrana eventually won the Champions League that season.
In the 2012-13 season of the Champions League, Real Madrid were pitted against Manchester United in the round of 16. The tie was in favour of the Red Devils until Luis Nani was shown the red card for a high boot. One could debate that the red was perhaps justified, but after watching the replays, it can be assured that Nani had the eyes for only the ball, which makes the decision a harsh one.
In the end, goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric saved the day for the Blancos.
Following this, the very next season, in the final of the Champions League against Atletico Madrid, Sergio Ramos scored the first goal of the game, but the linesman failed to spot that the defender was offside when the set-piece was taken.
Most recently, Barcelona’s 6-1 win against PSG in the second leg of the round of 16 was also heavily influenced by the referee.
This consistent bias of the referees towards the big two of Spain is ruining the unpredictability factor of the Champions League.
Right now, it seems highly unlikely that a miracle like Porto of 2003 will happen anytime soon. The tendency of the referees to act as benefactors to Real Madrid and Barcelona mean that these two are most likely to progress further than the others, especially the underdog clubs.
While Monaco are still in the Champions League, pitted against Juventus in the semi-final, it doesn’t bode well, financially, for UEFA if a final between Monaco and Atletico Madrid takes place.
UEFA earn more money if Real and/or Barca stay longer; this is a fact that can’t be argued. A final without the big two won’t generate as much money as it would if any of the two didn’t feature. Hence, when it comes to looking at things from a financial perspective, the gains for Madrid and Barca’s results in more profits for UEFA.
Let’s be clear here: this is not and accusation towards UEFA of manipulating referees to favour the big two, this is stating the obvious. According to UEFA’s yearly income statement, they earned their highest ever revenues from the Champions League in 2014 and 2015, generating €1.445 billion and €1.497 billion respectively.
These amounts are the highest they have ever earned and those numbers are likely to be toppled by the income of 2016, whose income statement is yet to be published.
With the draws of the semi-finals out, almost every neutral would like to see a final between Monaco and Atletico Madrid—but it won’t be good news for the money-magnets if that were to really happen.
And that’s perhaps why the “Universe will conspire” against these two teams for the greater good of UEFA. And that’s why the chances of the unpredictable happening are so little.
