If there’s any such thing as a referees union, then Mateu Lahoz is not a part of it anymore. He’s not holding back after watching Atletico Madrid beat Manchester United on Tuesday.
Diego Simeone’s side beat United 2-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday evening, courtesy of goals from Pablo Barrios in the first minute and Ademola Lookman in the 79th.
It proved to be another disappointing evening for the Reds, who also saw Leny Yoro sent off for a red card in the 74th minute.
That was one of several refereeing controversies in the game, with Atletico also seeing a goal ruled out early on due to a dubious handball decision against Marcos Llorente.
Questionable handball
That decision left Lahoz particularly annoyed. He can’t understand how anyone could
“It strikes me as madness. How is he supposed to move with his arms glued to his sides? That really is unnatural,” the 49-year-old said on Movistar Plus +, via Marca.
“It seems like madness and a violation of the rules to me; that handball is never intentional.
“There are only two possibilities here: either it happens immediately before the goal, or Marcos Llorente scores—but neither of those things happens.”
Lack of humility
It wasn’t all frustration about the decisions against Atletico, though. Lahoz was also annoyed by the decision to send off the Manchester United defender.
In fact, he criticise VAR and the refereeing team for not giving referee Glenn Nyberg a proper overview of the situation.
“Why don’t they approach these plays with humility when they go to VAR?” he added.
“The first angle they showed him is the only one where it might look like there’s something there…
“But football is so much more than that. Penalizing this contact with a direct free kick and a red card… Honestly, VAR wasn’t introduced for this. This cannot happen in the best club competition in the world.”
Whether that’s any comfort for Manchester United, remains to be seen.
With the pressure growing on Michael Carrick, performances not up to scratch and questions now being asked about what comes next, they perhaps have bigger issues than another referee not being up to scratch.
