© EuroFootball.com
In the first Champions League quarterfinal match between the teams of "Barcelona" and "Paris Saint-Germain," the German referee Wolfgang Stark made a mistake and will not officiate tournament matches this season.
This decision was made by the UEFA technical arbitration committee on Tuesday, led by Italian Pierluigi Colina.
According to reports in the Spanish sports media, the committee found that in the match between "Paris Saint-Germain" and "Barcelona" in Paris, W. Stark and his assistants made three major rule violations, which gave the German referee the right to impose this disciplinary sanction - not to officiate Champions League matches this season.
It was emphasized that the referee allowed the game to continue, despite Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba lying on the field after a collision. The rules stipulate that in such cases, when two players from one team cannot continue playing due to temporary health issues, the match must be stopped.
Moreover, W. Stark instructed to leave the field not only J. Mascherano, who needed assistance from the team's medical staff, but also J. Alba, although the latter did not require additional medical attention. Later, both players returned to play, stepping onto the field from the backline, even though the rules clearly state that players who temporarily leave the field must return from the sideline.
The UEFA technical arbitration committee did not review the episode where W. Stark and his assistants did not catch an offside violation that led to a goal scored by the "Paris Saint-Germain" forward Zlatan Ibrahimović.
This committee also decided not to allow Cüneyt Çakır to officiate in the quarterfinal matches. In the second leg of the round of 16 between "Manchester United" and Madrid's "Real," the Turkish referee controversially showed a red card to the English team's defender Nani.
