Petition for PSG, Barca replay gets over 200k signatures

PARIS. — A petition calling for Barcelona’s 6-1 win over Paris Saint- Germain in the Champions League to be replayed has received the support of over 200 000 signatures.

Barca appeared to be on their way out of the competition after they lost 4- 0 to the Ligue 1 side in the first-leg of their second round tie. However, Luis Enrique’s men became the first team to overcome a first-leg deficit of that magnitude when they demolished PSG at Camp Nou.

Referee Deniz Aytekin was heavily criticised for his performance in the game, giving the home side two penalties and reports circulated that he could be demoted as a result.

While PSG fans felt aggrieved at some of his decisions, one man, Luis Melendo Olmedo, wants the thriller at Camp Nou to be repeated.

The request was set up on Change. org, which allows people to post various petitions on issues such as women’s rights, immigration, war and discrimination.

According to Olmedo, the thrilling encounter must be revisited because of “incidents that seriously damaged PSG as a result of the German referee Deniz Aytekin, who gave Barcelona an advantage with his refereeing decisions”.

PSG have now sent an eight-page letter to UEFA, detailing their complaints and why they feel they were given a raw deal by the referee.

Reports in Spain suggest Deniz Aytekin may be removed from Champions League duty after making controversial calls in a 6-1 thriller at Camp Nou.

Aytekin may have taken charge of his last Champions League game this season, according to Marca.

Of those, it was Aytekin’s awarding of a stoppage-time penalty which sparked outrage within the PSG ranks — having previously waved Angel Di Maria to his feet after tangling with Javier Mascherano.

Luis Suarez, who had already been booked for diving, went down in the box late on under minimal contact, with the match officials eventually coming to the conclusion that a spotkick should be awarded.

The Spanish publication says: “UEFA sources have confirmed to Marca that it is Collina’s way of cutting mistakes out from his team of officials.

“However, the body won’t strictly punish the German official, although he could find himself demoted to lesser profile games for the time being or simply removed from action for a specific period.”

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has, however, backed UEFA’s group of officials and their ability to make big decisions.

He said: “Whether that particular case was an injustice or not, we can leave it to the judgement of the referee.

“What we saw was an incredible football match, whatever the result would have been at the end. This shows that football is really a fantastic game.

“When you feel you have seen everything, something else comes along. It’s just amazing and incredible.

“We have to really be careful in the International Football Association Board if we want to touch the rules, because football is such an incredible game.

“In this case, I don’t know if it was a clear mistake or not. But in future, when there are clear mistakes, this will be corrected by the video assistant referee so we can make sure decisive matches are not decided by mistakes made in good faith by the referee.” — Goal.com