Michael Oliver's decision to award a last minute penalty to Real Madrid against Juventus was a controversial one. There were immediate protests by the Juventus players
following which Gianluigi Buffon saw a red card for dissent in his last Champions League game of his career. After Cristiano Ronaldo converted the penalty for a last minute winner, the discussion then took to social media resulting in threats to Michael Oliver and his wife over the following weeks.
Let's have a look at the most controversial refereeing decisions in the Champions League. As a proxy for how controversial a decision is we will use the Google search interest for the referee in the month of a Champions League fixture led by the same referee. Google Trends data starts in 2004 and I looked at referees with the most CL matches since 2009 which should cover the most influential referees. There is some manual data cleaning necessary as search interest can also be influenced by other factors, e.g. other competitions like World Cups (which are usually in June/July when the CL has already finished) or non-football related news.
Find below the five most controversial refereeing decision:
1) Tom Henning Øvrebø: Chelsea vs Barcelona 1:1 (6 May 2009)
The mother of all CL controversies. Øvrebø turned down six penalty appeals by Chelsea. Barcelona went through on away goals.
2) Michael Oliver: Real Madrid vs Juventus 1:3 (11 Apr 2018)
Above mentioned last minute penalty decision in favour of Real Madrid
3) Cüneyt Çakır: Manchester United vs Real Madrid 1:2 (5 Mar 2013)
Controversial red card for Nani when United was 1:0 up. With the advantage Real Madrid quickly turned over the match to 1:2 and went through to the next round
4) Deniz Aytekin: Barcelona vs PSG 6:1 (8 Mar 2017)
Aytekin awarded a controversial penalty to Barcelona
5) Viktor Kassai: Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich 4:2 (18 Apr 2017)
Vidal received a second yellow card for a clean tackle. Two offside goals by Cristiano Ronaldo were not caught by the refereeing team
Let's have a look at the most controversial refereeing decisions in the Champions League. As a proxy for how controversial a decision is we will use the Google search interest for the referee in the month of a Champions League fixture led by the same referee. Google Trends data starts in 2004 and I looked at referees with the most CL matches since 2009 which should cover the most influential referees. There is some manual data cleaning necessary as search interest can also be influenced by other factors, e.g. other competitions like World Cups (which are usually in June/July when the CL has already finished) or non-football related news.
Find below the five most controversial refereeing decision:
1) Tom Henning Øvrebø: Chelsea vs Barcelona 1:1 (6 May 2009)
The mother of all CL controversies. Øvrebø turned down six penalty appeals by Chelsea. Barcelona went through on away goals.
2) Michael Oliver: Real Madrid vs Juventus 1:3 (11 Apr 2018)
Above mentioned last minute penalty decision in favour of Real Madrid
3) Cüneyt Çakır: Manchester United vs Real Madrid 1:2 (5 Mar 2013)
Controversial red card for Nani when United was 1:0 up. With the advantage Real Madrid quickly turned over the match to 1:2 and went through to the next round
4) Deniz Aytekin: Barcelona vs PSG 6:1 (8 Mar 2017)
Aytekin awarded a controversial penalty to Barcelona
5) Viktor Kassai: Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich 4:2 (18 Apr 2017)
Vidal received a second yellow card for a clean tackle. Two offside goals by Cristiano Ronaldo were not caught by the refereeing team
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