Hayes, Pochettino both feeling robbed by refereeing decisions against Chelsea

Saturday began with a fair bit of promise.

The women’s team were up first, trying to finish the job against powerhouse Barcelona. We had a 1-0 lead from the away leg — already an historic win against the defending Champions of Europe — but as Emma Hayes had put in the build-up, we needed to be “perfect” in the second leg.

Unfortunately, we were not.

We were not very assured at the back for whatever reason, and the visitors would take advantage of that shaky start with a deflected shot that found the space between glove and far post. We grew into the game however, missing several gilt-edged opportunities as the first-half wore on, and setting up a big second half with everything to play for.

And then, in a tribute act to the one and only Tom Henning Øvrebø — almost exactly 15 years of a pain that we’re used to — referee Iuliana Demetrescu decided to take center stage. In a rather scandalous decision, she showed a second yellow card to Kadeisha Buchanan this “challenge”.

This angle of the Buchanan red card. Wow pic.twitter.com/F4YRkvcApk — Fanzine WSL (@FanzineWSL) April 27, 2024

There was a break in play immediately following the sending-off, with the two teams huddled up, and as the cameras panned to the referee standing by herself, she was ... and I kid you not ... actually smirking at what just had transpired. (Or what was being said in her ear about what just had transpired; same difference.)

I’ve never seen this before in my football-watching life.

Down to ten, Chelsea soldiered on and tried to get to extra-time, but that would of course not do, with the referee duly awarding a penalty for an, at-best, borderline incident in the area: shoulder-to-shoulder with Jess Carter, Aitana Bonmatí, who spent all week talking about Chelsea’s supposed dark arts, loses out on the ball, but feels the arm on her back from Ashley Lawrence and goes to ground theatrically.

Hook, line, sinker.

PENALTY FOR BARCELONA.

0-1 (1-1)

Chelsea FC Women vs. FC Barcelona, #UWCLonDAZN semi-final leg 2, LIVE and FREE on https://t.co/0z5fAmShqh now. pic.twitter.com/54AVSZxnvR — DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) April 27, 2024

But it was the second yellow — uncheckable by VAR because reasons — that truly got Hayes riled up.

And since she’s leaving club football at the end of the season anyway, to take over the US Women’s National Team, she wasn’t holding back in her post-match thoughts.

“When you get such a shocking refereeing decision there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s hard enough when you’ve got 11 but when you’ve got 10 it’s virtually impossible. Even the Barcelona players said the referee was helpful to them. I didn’t think it was a foul, let alone a yellow card.” “We didn’t feel we got the opportunity to lose [the game], that was taken away, and I think that I was surprised when I saw [the referee] selected, she’s known for easy cards. [They were] probably the worst decisions in Uefa Women’s Champions League history.” -Emma Hayes; source: The Guardian

Obviously, nothing can change what happened and nothing will come of this that could undo the injustice of it all. And as with any game, the outcome was determined by multiple factors — including Chelsea missing several great opportunities before any refereeing shenanigans.

But after every game, you also want to feel that at least you were given a fair chance.

And Chelsea were not.

Compared to that debacle, the controversy at the end of the Chelsea men’s game at Villa Park, which ruled out Axel Disasi’s stoppage-time winner, was nothing.

Would-be Chelsea winner disallowed by VAR for this Badiashile push. pic.twitter.com/fx9AvoAIqY — Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) April 27, 2024

As with the women’s game, many factors led up to the outcome — including Chelsea missing several great opportunities before any refereeing shenanigans. But still, Mauricio Pochettino, who also may be in his last few games as Chelsea manager (though for very different reasons), has clearly had enough as well.

Following on from not even getting a VAR check for a potential handball against Jack Grealish in the FA Cup semifinal, Poch was in no mood to give any leeway to referee Craig Pawson, VAR Chris Kavanagh, and all the rest of the PGMOL clowns in his post-match comments.

“Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. [...] The referee is unbelievable and it’s ridiculous. It is difficult to accept, these type of things in the semi-final two weeks ago it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee he didn’t check it. “It is painful as [VAR] has damaged English football and I think [not even] Villa players and their fans [...] understood why the goal was disallowed. “They said it was foul and if you see the challenge what happened if we go into every single challenge like this it is going to be a foul and we wouldn’t finish the game with 11 [players].” -Mauricio Pochettino; source: Sky Sports

The decision to call a push on Benoît Badiashile wouldn’t be so outrageous if it happened in a vacuum.

But it didn’t. In fact, it happened right in front of the referee’s face. He was looking right at it, and let it play.

If you're willing to overturn the decision, foul or not, you must also suspend the referee for not calling this as a foul live, through sheer incompetence. There can be no other outcome. Look at where he is. pic.twitter.com/06TUBdbB3k — Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) April 27, 2024

Sure, VAR is there to catch errors in refereeing. Clear and obvious is supposed to be the test. But if this is where that bar is, then Pochettino is right. There would be so many fouls, no team would ever finish a game with eleven players. (By the way, notice how the supposed victim of this foul didn’t even once appeal. While that’s not necessarily the gold standard in every case — players appeal all the time for or against things — the lack of an appeal is almost always telling.)

And beyond all that, there is still no consistency. The one thing you need from video review is consistency. That’s the only way to engender trust in this process. But these sorts of fouls go uncalled all the time, are rarely checked, and almost never overturned. Here’s the same type of push not getting called on Raheem Sterling, for example, from earlier this season.

It’s not that it was or wasn’t a foul. You can live with an on-field decision. It’s that VAR, now in its however manyeth year, still operates without proper oversight, with very little accountability, almost zero transparency, a convoluted workflow, substandard and nepotistic application, and practically no real effort to create and certainly no real progress to actually have a better-refereed game than before its inception.