Pantalones wrote:How can he say the ref was favoring Barca when he denied a clear "advantage" (don't know the correct word in english) rule and rejected them of a goal, and the next few minutes he buys a phantom foul near the box which resulted in the Arsenal goal.
I too wish the match would've gone that way as 11 vs. 11 with Arsenal needing to score to win would've been much more fun than the bunkering they did today.
The referee had the option to play the advantage. He chose to give Barca the very much bigger advantage of playing against ten men for almost an entire match.
It is obvious to me now that a referee who has been brought up on a diet of smorgasborg, beer and Norwegian viking songs doesn't have the brain capacity to think as fast as a Spanish/Italian/British/German ref.
It was the FINAL of the European championships, for chrissake. Why choose someone who's only claim to fame is that he officiates in the Norwegian football league?
It's a bit like appointing Mr Bean to oversee the world chess final.
The Cup was taken to England last year. UEFA are not exactly known for being squeaky clean and fair. It would be obviously good for business if the Cup moved around Europe on an equal share basis, rather than one country winning it two years (or more...just wait for next year with Chelsea et al) on the trot.
Sepp Splatter (UEFA No.1) is basically the UEFA equivalent of GWB. He is an empire builder, who takes every opportunity to feather his own nest, and the nests of his fellow UEFA mafia. Just to give you an example of this, do you know how many tickets were given to fellow UEFA officials, big executives and corporations for last nights match, as opposed to genuine football supporters? Estimates vary from about 35000 to 45000!
It is no surprise to me that, when UEFA had the pick of Europes best refs to choose from (at least fifty are much better qualified than the prat who ballsed it up last night), that UEFA chose Erikk Hornhat to officiate.
