As a neutral watching the Champions League final yesterday evening what was refreshing was the no nonsense refereeing. The players should have no complaints when they watch the replays as the right calls were made under extreme pressure. Too often we see referees let players get away with their antics. What this highlighted more than anything was how poor the standard of refereeing in in the English Premier League. Players do what they do using gamesmanship and negative antics because they are allowed to.
The commentators knew that this referee was a different class after he refereed the relegation match for the Bundesliga last weekend. The commentators did their homework and watched that game saying how impressed they were with his decision making getting the big calls correct. If a referee takes no nonsense then you play accordingly and win him over.
With Arsenal having scored early in the game the time wasting tactics started from as early as the twentieth minute. Thankfully the referee Daniel Siebert and his German official team never allowed this to happen or the game would have been a game of stoppages with less football being played. Arsenal were naive to think to think they were smarter than the referee and instead of working with the referee they were constantly fighting and questioning decisions because their fooling the referee tactics were not working.
Right before the half time break Arsenal had a throw in that saw them change the thrower 3 times and was clearly obvious what was going on for all to see. Declan Rice is the teams long ball thrower and should have been the first player to pick up the ball and not the third. Then the corner awarded in injury time of the first half saw another go slow through Saka not reading the situation and the referee blew half time and hence they lost the corner.
This is only happening because this has been allowed to happen due to referees being too weak to assert their authority. Players feigning injury is bad enough and is done only to slow down the game by breaking up play. Football is a contact sport and the way the players act today you would have have to question their manhood. Rightly so other contact sports do look down on footballers as the game has become very soft.
In the second half we saw Arsenal's Kai Havertz trying to play the opponent by backing into him and trying to appeal that he was the one fouled. Three occasions Havertz tried this tactic and gave up when he realised he was not fooling the referee.
The penalty call by Arsenal in extra time was not given and again a big call being the right one as the attacker had his arm wrapped around the defenders arm. Not really wrapped, but more like being locked and sadly most referees would have given this.
When you see this angle is is very clear and a free kick to PSG as this is a foul by Arsenal. Scrolling through social media you would not have thought so and those that can't see this have a biased view and the referee got the call exactly right.
A referees job is to apply the laws as a neutral not favoring either team and this is what the referee did and this is not always the case. Both teams should want the game to flow with the correct decisions applied even if they go against their team.
I do think Arsenal were very naive and should have done their homework on the referee knowing what they were going to be facing. Being a professional club trying to be the best then they need to think differently and make sure they are studying the referees trying to win them over. I know in rugby teams study the referees knowing where they are strong on the laws they apply and it can change week to week depending if the referee is a northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere referee.
Daniel Siebert takes no nonsense and Arsenal's games and tactics trying to influence the decisions was never going to work. The refereeing in the EPL is average at best and last night we saw the difference of what refereeing standards should be.
