Lyon, Marseille, and Niçois risk getting even more frustrated. After a controversial weekend in terms of refereeing in Ligue 1, the traditional weekly debrief from the technical direction of the French Football Federation (FFF) was eagerly awaited this week.
The debates started on Saturday night, with the match between Paris Saint-Germain and OGC Nice. Just before halftime, while the score was still 0-0, Désiré Doué attempted a header on a poorly cleared corner by the Aiglons. The ball went straight out of play, but Morgan Sanson accidentally touched it with his hand, with no particular impact on the rest of the play. After a video consultation, Willy Delajod awarded a penalty that Nuno Mendes converted in the 42nd minute. This led to Claude Puel and his team being defeated 4-0 at home.
“It’s frustrating, there is nothing behind me, just the stands. I just want to protect myself,” said Morgan Sanson in the mixed zone. “We need to use common sense, there are things that have been against us for several weeks, but we will deal with it. We had a good first half and we will give everything to come back.”
The FFF eventually decided to confirm the official’s decision, stating that “the contact with the ball is considered deliberate and constitutes an infringement of Law 12, justifying the penalty.”
Lyon and Marseille have reasons to protest
The organization then analyzed a situation where a goal was rightly disallowed for Stade Rennais against FC Metz (0-0) before stopping there. However, the 27th matchday of the French Championship was much more eventful than that. Starting with the first match on Sunday between Lyon and Monaco, two incidents could have easily merited their place in the weekly debrief of the Technical Direction.
A headbutt from Nicolás Tagliafico on Maghnes Akliouche could have been commented on, but especially a blatant shirt tug from Denis Zakaria on Endrick, just before Monaco’s winning penalty (1-2). “I don’t understand why VAR didn’t intervene,” lamented Corentin Tolisso in the mixed zone after the match. “Every day there is a foul on Endrick. I prefer not to tell you Mr. Letexier’s response, he was arrogant, it was surreal.”
A few hours later, Olympique de Marseille also felt aggrieved during a crucial match in the race for Europe, lost against Lille (1-2). Benoît Bastien could have shown a red card to the Northerners on two occasions. Calvin Verdonk and Nathan Ngoy committed ugly fouls in the first fifteen minutes: the former with a foot on Igor Paixão’s head, and the latter with a harsh tackle on Mason Greenwood, who was subsequently injured. However, the refereeing body chose not to comment on these situations, much to the disappointment of the supporters of the teams involved.
