How many games will Tom Henning Ovrebo be allowed to ruin?
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Referee Tom Henning Ovrebo sends off Fiorentina's Massimo Gobbi, one of the poor decisions suffered by the Italians in their defeat at Bayern Munich. Photograph: Andreas Gebert/EPA
Louis van Gaal is never normally humble or self-effacing, and the Bayern Munich coach's comments after his side needed the dodgiest of last-minute winners to beat Fiorentina at home in the Champions League immediately aroused suspicions.
"We have won but we have been a bit lucky," Van Gaal said. "Fiorentina played very well, we could not work them out, and the goal we scored at the end was clearly offside."
At first sight that seems refreshing, an antidote to all the managers who share Arsène Wenger's blind spot when it comes to contentious incidents or follow the Arsenal manager's example when he does see something and excoriates the referee for costly mistakes instead of pointing the finger at, say, Sol Campbell or Lukasz Fabianski. Check the small print, however, and it turns out Van Gaal was speaking in code. What he really meant was that when you have Tom Henning Ovrebo as your Champions League referee you just have to be thankful when the randomness of his decision-making works in your favour. Arjen Robben said almost exactly the same thing just as diplomatically when asked about the referee's performance after the game.
If only everything in life could be as reasonable as Bayern's Dutchmen. Unfortunately it cannot, and nor is it as easy to be philosophical when unreasonable decisions have cost you a game. Here, for example, is what the Fiorentina coach, Cesare Prandelli, had to say about the 2-1 defeat in Munich: "We did everything right on the field. We only failed to double up our marking on the officials. Three incidents changed the game – Massimo Gobbi's dismissal, Miroslav Klose not getting sent off and the offside goal." Given that Klose should not have been on the pitch when he scored the winner from a ludicrously offside position – like his team-mate Mark van Bommel the German was allowed to get away with a studs-up challenge far worse than the shoulder barge for which Gobbi was sent off – it is tempting to conclude that what actually affected the result more than any other factor was the identity of the official. It turns out the worst referee Guus Hiddink has ever seen has not been packed off to officiate under-13s games in his native Norway, as witnesses of last season's debacle at Stamford Bridge were demanding at the time, but is still running and ruining Champions League matches.
Who was it again who said you get a better standard of refereeing in Europe? Oh yes, that short-tempered bloke at Old Trafford, shortly before he changed his mind when Manchester United were beaten at home by Besiktas. "Deary, deary me," was how Sir Alex Ferguson reacted to Ovrebo's latest clanger. He might have taken the words right out of Wenger's mouth, for Arsenal certainly did not see refereeing of the required standard at Porto, when they, too, were undermined by a Scandinavian official with previous.
It was possible to feel sorry for Martin Hansson during the Thierry Henry furore – the referee could hardly be blamed for missing the handball first time round and it was not his fault he could not consult a monitor – yet his inept role in the back‑pass incident gave Wenger every cause for indignation. There is nothing wrong with an attacking side taking a free-kick quickly to take advantage of position and defensive disarray, but it is not the referee's job to obtain the ball for them to do so. Once the referee asks for the ball he needs to ensure both sides are ready before releasing it. If the ball is already on the floor or in the possession of the attacking side it is a different matter, but Wenger's complaint was fair. The referee takes the ball in order to take control, not to facilitate a quick free-kick that is impossible to defend.
While being conscious that Premier League-style demotion of erring officials would leave the Champions League in the hands of a core of referees from leading nations, Uefa nevertheless need to acknowledge the potential for mishap inherent when the best players in the world are sometimes refereed by semi-professionals from quieter football backwaters such as Norway and Sweden.
When not in downright denial – the Uefa website's otherwise extensive coverage of the week's action makes no special mention of Ovrebo or Hansson and contains no hint of outrageously poor decisions – the authorities are content to back their referees and let them gain experience on the job. As a policy this is admirable and painful at the same time, and the knowledge that some of the biggest games in the European calendar are at the mercy of clownish bungling by the men supposedly in charge at least keeps the knockout rounds watchable.
Ferguson makes a good point when he says Ovrebo is under pressure because of what happened last season and clearly in need of a rest, and it may be the case that adverse publicity is making referees nervous and exacerbating the problem, yet given their commitment to all member countries that leaves Uefa in a bit of a fix. If they strike off Ovrebo, what do they do next? Send for the second-best ref in Norway?
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definitely one of platini's man.