Just days before two big clubs face each other in any competition, the referee who will be in charge of the fixture is made official, after which a section of fans share their views on the match official across various social media platform.
Barcelona will face Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final and the first leg will be played at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.
UEFA have confirmed Björn Kuipers will be the referee for the European tie and this time, it’s not just fans whinging, Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo have fired some early shots.
Regarding the Dutchman, they claim he has a ‘reputation as a permissive referee, who takes time to whistle’.
First, they talk about the La Liga winners’ track record when Kuipers was in charge and that doesn’t seem impressive as in the eight times he’s managed a Barcelona match, the Blaugrana have won only three, having one defeat and settling for a draw on four occasions.
Wins came against Dynamo Kiev in 2009 and against AC Milan in the quarter-final tie in April 2012. He was also in charge of the UEFA Super Cup in 2011 when Barcelona defeated Porto.
The La Liga winners’ only defeat came against Celtic in the group stages in November 2012. The rest of the fixtures he has managed have ended up in a draw.
The last was a goalless draw against Juventus at home. It was a second leg tie as the first leg ended up in a 3-0 defeat.
Mundo are unhappy with several decisions from the 2016 fixture. They feel Neymar shouldn’t have been cautioned and are still annoyed Miralem Pjanic went without punishment after a clash with Lionel Messi.
Kuipers has been in charge of a Liverpool game once and that was during the last group stage fixture against FC Basel in 2014. The tie at Anfield ended in 1-1 draw as Dejan Lovren and Lucas Leiva were shown yellow cards.
Judging from Mundo Deportivo’s report, the idea will be to pressure Kuipers so that more bookings are handed out to Liverpool for fouls against Barca. Expect much crowding of the referee, players dropping to the floor in dramatic fashion, and imaginary cards being waved in the referee’s face.
