After Chelsea's late, late, away goals defeat to Spanish giants Barcelona, in their Champions League Semi Final 2nd leg at Stamford Bridge last night, all the talk was about two things.
First was Didier Drogba's four letter tirade at the Sky Sports camera's after the game, but in the most part it was about the poor refereeing display of Norway's Tom Henning Ovrebo.
Ovrebo missed what seemed to be at least two stick on penalty decisions for Chelsea, and even when he did give a crucial decision to the Blues, he got it wrong again, sending off Barcelona defender Eric Abidal for fouling Nicolas Anelka, when video replays showed that Abidal had made minimal contact at best and Anelka seemed to trip himself up, with Ovrebo sending Abidal off for being the last man.
The foremost question on a lot of people's minds, as well as the lips of Sky's Andy Gray, was should referee's from small footballing nations be allowed to officiate such big matches as a Champions League Semi Final, between two of the biggest teams in Europe, if not the world?
No offence to the Norwegien league, but even officiating a top table clash between Rosenborg and Molde (the current top two in the Tippeliagen) cannot even begin to compare to a clash between Chelsea and Barcelona, on a stage such as the Champions League, with a place in a Rome Final against the current World and defending European Champions (thought I'd get that one in somewhere) at stake.
Again, no offence, but the level of football in the Norwegian League cannot possibly be at the standard and the speed of a similar match in the English Premier League or in the Spanish La Liga, and because of that, referee's such as Ovrebo can't possibly be used to officiating a match of this standard.
It could though be seen as discrimination to suggest that if a referee comes from one country that we should assume that they are not good enough for the big events, but I think some common sense needs to be used, as one bad performance has cost Chelsea and lucrative place in a Champions League Final.
Ovrebo in his own right is a good referee but on a weekly basis he will be officiating matches between the likes of Molde, SK Brann, Rosenborg and the like, and his decision making and speed of thought is simply going to be set to the standards he has in his home league.
UEFA probably feel that there isnt a problem here, and Im sure Michel Platini is quite happy with how things turned out (for reasons he hasnt exactly kept secret) but if UEFA do feel there is a problem then the solution is simple, assign referee's based on the magnitude of the event, the teams involved, and the league they officiate.
Let's look for a moment at the English Premier League.
When matches between Manchester United, and Liverpool or Chelsea or Arsenal take place, who referee's them? Nine times out of ten it will be Howard Webb or Mike Dean who are the top two referee's in the country, they are also near the top of the list when it comes to appointing officials for the big events, like Howard Webb will this year be officiating the FA Cup Final.
For years UEFA have had a star rating on venues, and its this star rating that comes into consideration when deciding where to host a major event. For example this years Champions League final will be being held at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which is a UEFA five star rated venue, and its this principal, that may work with matches, in deciding how important they are and who needs to be at the centre of everything.
Chelsea have lost out on a rematch with Manchester United because of a poor display from a referee from a country who's league is at a very low standard compared to the Premier League and La Liga, but UEFA still entrusted him to take control of these two mammoth sides and call it down the middle and fairly, and even the untrained eye could see some of the glaring mistakes that Ovrebo made in the 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge.
Maybe its time for UEFA to use the common sense approach, big game, appoint a big ref from a big league.
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