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French Referee Admits Bad Day, Says ”I made Three Terrible Errors”

 

A week after scoring for the first time in Ligue 1 in the 2-1 win against Sochaux, former Fulham striker Dimitar Berbatov provided two assists before netting his team’s decisive third goal at the Stade de Gerland. Few at the time saw that he could have been flagged offside in the build-up to Monaco’s opener, which was scored by Valère Germain, but Lyon were left raging at what followed.

The far-side assistant referee failed to spot that Berbatov was offside when he touched the ball into the path of James Rodriguez for Monaco’s second goal, and after Jimmy Briand got one back, the other assistant was guilty of playing Berbatov onside as he ran through to score early in the second half.

You didn’t need the replay to see that the striker was at least a yard ahead of the last defender when he was played in by James, and Lyon coach Rémi Garde was understandably furious on the touchline.

Lyon managed to get another goal back through Briand but the damage had been done as they fell to a first home defeat since August. It was a result that could have serious consequences for OL in their quest to snatch a top-three finish and Champions League qualification, so Garde and president Jean-Michel Aulas were forced to bite their tongues after the match.

“I am not going to talk about it because I risk getting a suspension,” said Garde, although he did admit that he had gone to see Fautrel at half-time. “I kept my calm – because sometimes I can get angry – but dialogue is always difficult.”

Aulas is not usually slow to speak out against referees and he has been critical of the 42-year-old Fautrel in the past, but he refused to go over the top on Sunday, preferring instead to call for extra help to be given to officials.

“It is rare to have three errors of judgement in the same match but we know that referees work in difficult conditions. It is not an easy job. With video help there would be no more debate,” Aula said.

Referees do not usually face the media and admit to their mistakes, but to be fair to Fautrel he did come clean, accepting that he and his assistants had experienced a bad day at the office in front of the television cameras.

“We have realised that errors of judgement were made by the officials. It’s more than damaging,” he said. “It is always difficult to take decisions like these. It leads to frustration and to reactions from others and changes the context of the match. We have seen the images again. I have other bad memories but this has been a really bad day for me and my two colleagues.”

Indeed, it has been a very bad week for French refereeing, after Stéphane Lannoy’s performance in Barcelona’s Champions League win against Manchester City on Wednesday was widely called into question.