Controversy is up in the air following the appointment of Dutchman, Danny Makkelie, to officiate Saturday’s Champions League quarterfinal match between Manchester City and Olympique Lyon at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon, Portugal, Completesports.com has learnt.
According to a report by L’Equipe, UEFA’s appointment of Makkelie, as the centre referee of a match which result could favour his country’s club Ajax in next season’s Champions League campaign, is debatable.
Ajax, a 10th ranked team by UEFA, will qualify to start next season’s Champions League from the group stage if Manchester City defeat Lyon in Lisbon. City have already picked next season’s UCL spot, while Lyon are the only current quarter-finalists without a berth in the next competition.
Retired Dutch referee, Dick Jol, has promptly weighed into the controversy, dismissing UEFA’s appointment of his compatriot to referee the Man City – Lyon clash as a “misguided and incredibly stupid” decision.
“Given the interests of the Netherlands, UEFA should never have put Danny Makkelie in this situation. I have no doubts about his honesty, but France risks doing a lot on this matter, and asking for a change of arbitrator, ” the 64 year old told L’Equipe.
He insisted: “UEFA should change and give Danny a good semi-final”, he insisted.”
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37 year old former police officer, Makkelie, officiated at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia as a Video Assistant referee (VAR), and could be remembered for a controversial penalty kick he awarded to France against Croatia in the final.
A year later. the Dutchman who has been a FIFA-listed arbiter since 2011, also worked as at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France as a Video Assistant referee. And he masterminded two controversial retaken spot-kicks in the tournament. Firstly, when host France pipped Nigeria 1-0 and Italy’s first goal in 5-0 win over Jamaica.
7 Comments
Now the truths coming out…. He masterminded Nigeria’s defeat to France in a world cup quarter final… But our incompetent NFF saw this game and made a comment. This is exactly the reasons we Africans continue getting robbed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhSbih-N_AI
Hahahahaha…..It was FIFA that asked Ngozi Ebere to kick the french attacker from behind…Lolz. Or maybe it was FIFA that told the goalkeeper to step off the line before the kick was taken. Dont go and learn the rules of the game and prepare your teams better rather than looking for whom to blame for your failures. Maybe it was FIFA that also made the team to loose 0-3 to Germany in the the 2nd round too….LMAO
Dr drey sometime you said the truth but sometime you run for that becouse you want to against somebody stop that please, let all enjoy been here don’t be your brother enemy…thanks you all for understand
Mr man I say the truth always….even if it means going against the whole world, I still say the truth. Its his own cup of coffee he who isnt happy with that.
Did Ebere kick the french attacker…VERY OBVIOUS. Did Ebere make contact/get ball…CAPITAL NO (the french girl controlled the ball with her right leg and got kicked from behind )in the left leg…Did she stop a goal bound opportunity…..CAPITAL YES….Is it a penalty…..CAPITAL YES. So where is the FIFA conspiracy there…???
Does the new penalty rule insists keepers MUST be on their line when penalties are taken…CAPITAL YES…..was our goal keeper on her line before the kick was taken….OBVIOUSLY NO. Was it only Nigeria/African teams that was penalized for such in that tournament…CAPITAL NO
FIFA rules states that the penalty be retaken if the advantage due to the penalty is lost.
So let the conspiracy theorists show us where and how FIFA “robbed” us. Was it FIFA that also masterminded our 0-3 loss to Norway and 0-3 loss to Germany too…??? Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery…!
@dr drey, if it was naija striker that had similar situation the ref will rule out the penalty. You saw the case of iheanacho head kicked by argentina the ref ignored the call for penalty. Even a clear hand ball by rojo was also anulled.
Tell me when a Nigerian/African striker was ever hacked from behind in the penalty box and was not awarded a penalty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJTM4gm_LPU&t=310s
The highlight is there for all to see. Iheanacho was not kicked in the head….he smashed his head into the defender’s leg when the defender was clearing the ball. The defender got the ball first before any contact with Iheanacho’s head…In any tackle inside the box if the defender gets/ makes contact with the ball first its NEVER a foul. Likwise in the case of Rojo, the ball touched Rojo’s head before it touched his arm. When the ball touches any part of your body before it touches your arm is is NEVER a handball/penalty. Go and learn the rules of football before you complain. At least we see these things being interpreted all the time while watching the major leagues.
The same ref gave us a penalty for an off the ball tug by mascherano on balogun’s jersey for us to equalize in that game. He could have ignored it and heavens will not fall. Enough of all these lazy excuses and putting the blame on FIFA for non-performance