More than ever, the French arbitral body was involved in a lot of controversies on the 18th round of the 2011/2012 Ligue 1 Championnat. Misjudgements, red cards and inappropriate usage of the language have certainly made things complicated
for the referees.
Often, refereeing is the centre of controversy in football games. however, the Week 18 of the 2011/2012 Ligue 1 campaign proved to be a grand slam of controversies which has put serious question marks on referees in France.
The first controversy happened in Olympique de Marseille’s 2-1 win over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Lorient-c39153 at the Stade Velodrome. Marseille were certainly tested to the limit by a valiant Lorient side. Les Merlus would certainly not have fallen and would have held the Phoceens
to a draw. However, first Les Merlus had to play 10 against 11 and later on, it became 9 against 11. With two players sent for an early shower, Christian Gourcuff was visibly infuriated at how things unfolded at the Rhone province.
Asked at a press conference, the French tactician who usually is calm, showed his bitterness at the refereeing decisions.
“A match? Rather a fight. You cannot hide in the arbitrary context like this. It is fundamental to the outcome of a game. The expulsion of Kone changed the game. We no longer had the resources to take the game to Marseille,” said Gourcuff before further
blaming the referee for not being fair with his side throughout the game.
However, that was not the end of the controversy. In another game, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jimmy-Briand-c18553 was clearly offside. However, the linesman failed to see this.
Evian president http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Patrick-c29254 Trotignon was clearly infuriated at the decision and said that if referees cannot make correct decisions on the ground, they should change their source of income.
However, the highlight of the week was the game between Stade Brest and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kamel-Chafni-c20261.
The Moroccan international has been playing in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 throughout his career and was shown yellow for a poor tackle that deserved a yellow card. However, if that was not enough, the referee’s assistant said “Casse-toi L’Arabe” which means send off the Arab
to the referee.
Chafni was clearly hurt by what the assistant said and went up to him. Chafni told the assistant not to call him like this but referee Monsieur Chapron intervened only to show Chafni another yellow card for dissent.
Chafni is now considering going to the Auxerre police to discuss the issue as he believes is an act of racism.
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