Currently, Szymon Marciniak is considered the best referee in the football world and, for that reason, was appointed by FIFA to officiate the last World Cup final held in Qatar between France and Argentina. However, his presence is not without controversy… and last night he faced numerous criticisms for his officiating during the match between Inter Milan and FC Barcelona in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals.

The four controversial decisions that made Barcelona explode

One of the harshest critics of Szymon Marciniak was Arsène Wenger, former Arsenal coach and current head of development at FIFA. Wenger, who has long advocated for changes to key refereeing rules in football, appeared on BeINSPORTS to share his views on the match and was extremely critical of the performance by Marciniak, whose appointment for this match by UEFA had already sparked plenty of controversy.

Throughout the match, there were numerous highly questionable decisions that, according to Barcelona fans, always went against them. The first was a possible handball by Francesco Acerbi in the 26th minute. There was also controversy over the correction made by VAR when Marciniak initially awarded a penalty for Bastoni’s foul on Lamine Yamal, while in the first half they had overturned his decision on a penalty involving Cubarsí. Lastly, a potential foul by Dumfries on Gerard Martín was also protested right before Acerbi scored the stoppage-time equalizer.

Wenger explains why there was no penalty by Cubarsí on Lautaro

However, above all these incidents, the one that generated the most controversy was the penalty given against Cubarsí for a challenge on Lautaro Martínez just before halftime, which Calhanoglu converted. “At full speed, it’s a great tackle. The defender wins the challenge and that should be it. But then everything changes when you slow it down, and that’s not football,” said Wenger.

He concluded his explanation with the following: “Look at what Lautaro Martínez is doing. He knows he’s not going to score in this play and starts leaning into Cubarsí more and more. He’s clearly looking for the penalty, and in my opinion, the referee made the wrong call. People should see who touches the ball first. Who gets there first. It’s Cubarsí, and everything else is done by Lautaro. To me, it’s clearly not a penalty, and you can’t blow the whistle for a play like that, especially when it already looked like a clean tackle live.”