Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s chief referee, defends the decisions Danny Makkelie and Björn Kuipers made in the semi-finals and finals of the European Championship respectively. Makkelie, in particular, has been criticized for the penalty he awarded England after light contact between Raheem Sterling and Danish defender Joakim Maehle. “That’s not a scandal,” Rosetti told the Guardian.
Arsene Wenger and José Mourinho, among others, said after the semi-final between England and Denmark that Makkelie absolutely should have been taken to the side by Pol van Boekel, the VAR on duty. “This was definitely not a penalty,” Mourinho said. “Never. This referee’s decision, at this level, I don’t understand it.” Wenger added: “I don’t understand why in situations like this the VAR doesn’t call the referee to go to the screen. At such a moment the referee has to be absolutely sure of his decision.”
— vidfooty (@vidfooty1) July 8, 2021
Rosetti, the chairman of UEFA’s refereeing committee, sees the situation differently. “Makkelie saw that the number five (Maehle, ed.) did not play the ball and that he made contact with the right leg of the English player (Sterling, ed.)”, said the Italian former referee. “The VAR confirmed those findings: the defender did not touch the ball. We can always discuss the intensity of the contact, but we always want the referee to be at the center of the decision-making process.”
Kuipers came under fire in England for the decision to give Jorginho yellow instead of red in the 114th minute of the European Championship final. The Italian midfielder first hit the ball in a duel with Jack Grealish, but then his shoe landed hard on the inside of the Englishman’s knee. “Such behavior should simply result in a red card,” said Frank Lampard afterwards. Alan Shearer was also of that opinion. “It was a reckless move and also dangerous for the opponent,” said Shearer. “It was really over the top and therefore worthy of a red card.”
Can someone explain why Jorginho is rolling around? #ITAENG pic.twitter.com/p2vTihNrJd
— Jaja (@JajaBred) July 11, 2021
In this case too, Rosetti disagrees with the analysts. “Kuipers saw that Jorginho tried to play the ball,” said the referee. “You can see he put his right foot on the ball, then his foot slides off and there is a second contact on Grealish’s leg. The referee contacted VAR to explain what he had seen. It’s the “It is the job of the VAR to check perfectly whether the arbiter has seen it correctly. If the ball had not hit, but Jorginho was directly on his leg, the decision would be reversed.”