Which was the most controversial UEFA Champions League match?

Syed Hamid Rasool

Following Champions league since forever

34w ago

From the answers, most people seem to follow only the big clubs with the two standout games sparked with controversy. Although I must admit the Chelsea Barca game had much more points that indicate biasness from the referee, compared with the recent Real vs Bayern game which showcased awful performance from the officials at both end.

These however still can be graded as human errors by the supporters of the winners, a well crafted controversy occurred during the final group game in the 2011 season between Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb. With Real Madrid advancing into the knockout stage (as you would expect) it was left to Lyon and Ajax to fight for second position. Prior to kickoff at the same time, Ajax had 8 points with GD of +3 while Lyon had 5 with GD of -4.

At half way mark it was only 1–1 in the Lyon game while Ajax were losing 1–0 to Madrid. In a dramatic half of football, Lyon won the game 1–7 amidst poor display of defence, ordinary goalkeeping and even winks from Zagreb player caught on camera during one of the goals. In contrast, Ajax had two goals disallowed and got beaten 3–0. Bafetemi Gomis scored 4 goals, which generally were 1v1 with the keeper with virtually absent defence line well behind.

Both Ajax and Lyon had 8 points after the match day and it was Olympique Lyon who progressed through on goal difference. Ajax launched an investigation probe later on but like Chelsea, fairness was not achieved.

Edit: Inserted scorecard. Updated half time scores.

Aaron Nedumparambil

Football fanatic

34w ago

Arsenal Vs Barcelona CL 2011. Arsenal leading in the tie.

Van Persie gets a second yellow and sent-off.

Why?
He was called offside and the whistle was blown, he didn't stop and took his shot 1 second after the whistle was blown. Referee considered this as a card offense and gave him a second yellow of the match thus having to send him off.

Why was this controversial?

The match happened in Nou Camp in front of 90K supporters. RVP could be forgiven for not hearing the whistle. But referee didn’t consider it. Somehow in his infinite brain the almighty Referee thought that RVP would consider it wise to try and score even after hearing the offside call being made.

UEFALONA FOR A REASON

EDIT: I can’t definitely say if the offside call was correct or wrong in the first place so I have removed the portion where I commented on that.

Yousif Al-Dujaili

Head of Marketing & Community (2016-present)

36w ago

It has got to be the Chelsea v Barcelona 2009 game. The referee, who has quit refereeing, still gets abuse to this day.

In an interview in 2012 he said:

“It [abuse] has lasted and I get about three to four emails [from Chelsea fans] a year. It is not nice but nothing too serious, either. I don't let it upset me or my family. They do not know much about it, as I do not show them the emails.”

As bad as this is, it’s fascinating to see that the referee himself said this about the match:

“Looking back, there are certainly things I would have done differently. I learnt a lot from that experience. But all referees will tell you that they have good and bad matches, moments they do well and moments they do not so well. That is all part of the job.”

Quite rare for a referee to essentially admit he was wrong, especially for such a big game.

Instead of explain what happened that game & cause any bias, I’ll simply leave the highlights video here:

Sudipto Roy

Football is not just a game, it is life itself

36w ago

Which was the most controversial UEFA Champions League match?

Opponents: Chelsea vs Barcelona

Occasion: Champions League Semi-Final 2nd leg (May 2009)

This game is synonymous with bad refereeing. I have never ever seen biased refereeing such as this before or since. Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo gave one of the worst refereeing displays in the competition’s history which left the Chelsea players and fans fuming in rage and the audience worldwide in shock. This game is one of the primary reasons why Barcelona was nicknamed ‘UEFAlona’ by rival teams’ fans.

Referee Ovrebo turned down four penalty appeals by the home side: a shirt pull on Drogba by Eric Abidal, handballs by Gerard Piqué and Samuel Eto’o and Dani Alves’s grab on Florent Malouda. All of these fouls could have resulted in a penalty being awarded to Chelsea. The despair of Chelsea players turned to uncontrollable rage when Andrés Iniesta's late equalizer saw the match end 1-1 and put Pep Guardiola's Barcelona side into the final on away goals.

Ovrebo was verbally abused by Didier Drogba and José Bosingwa immediately after the final whistle, for which the players received four- and three-match bans respectively, along with a fine of £85,000 to Chelsea for improper conduct by players and fans. Jose Bosingwa had said of Ovrebo "I don’t know if he’s a referee or a thief”. The Norwegian official later received death threats from the enraged Chelsea fans.

It was a real shame that such a great occasion has been permanently marred by the incompetence of an official.