Lyonnais, Marseillais and Niçois are likely to be even more enraged. After a controversial weekend in terms of refereeing in Ligue 1, the traditional weekly debrief from the technical direction of arbitration of the French Football Federation (FFF) was highly anticipated this week.
The debates started on Saturday evening, with the match between Paris Saint-Germain and OGC Nice. Just before half-time, while the score was still nil-nil, Désiré Doué attempted a volley from a poorly cleared corner by the Eaglets. The ball sailed straight out of play, but Morgan Sanson accidentally touched it with his hand, with no particular impact on the rest of the action. After video consultation, Willy Delajod awarded a penalty that Nuno Mendes converted in the 42nd minute. Enough to frustrate Claude Puel and his players, beaten 4-0 on their own turf.
“It’s frustrating, there’s nothing behind me, just the stands. I just want to protect myself,” said Morgan Sanson in the mixed zone. “We need to be sensible, there are things that have been going against us for several weeks, but we’re going to face it. We had a good first half and we will give everything to come back.”
The FFF ultimately decided to confirm its official’s decision, stating that “the contact with the ball is considered and constitutes an infringement of Law 12, justifying the penalty.”
Lyon and Marseille have reasons to protest
The institution then analyzed a situation of a goal logically disallowed for Stade Rennais against FC Metz (0-0) before leaving it there. However, the 27th round of the French Championship was much more eventful than that. From the first Sunday match between Lyon and Monaco, two incidents could have easily found a place in the weekly debrief of the DTA.
A header by Nicolás Tagliafico on Maghnes Akliouche could have been mentioned, but especially a blatant shirt pull by Denis Zakaria on Endrick, just before the winning penalty awarded to AS Monaco (1-2). “I don’t understand why VAR didn’t intervene,” lamented Corentin Tolisso in the mixed zone after the match. “Every day there is a foul on Endrick. I’d rather not tell you Mr. Letexier’s response, he was arrogant, it was surreal.”
Hours later, Olympique de Marseille also felt aggrieved during a crucial match in the race for Europe, lost against Lille (1-2). Twice, Benoît Bastien could have shown a red card to the Northerners. Calvin Verdonk and Nathan Ngoy committed ugly fouls in the first quarter of an hour: the former with a foot to the head of Igor Paixão, and the latter with a very strong tackle on Mason Greenwood, who was injured shortly after. However, the technical direction of the arbitration did not wish to comment on these situations, much to the disappointment of the supporters of the teams involved.
