Arsenal-Barcelona Aftermath: Van Persie's Sending Off Through Busacca's Eyes

As the dust has yet to settle on Arsenal's somewhat acrimonious departure from the Champions League at the mercy of Barcelona, the talk is all about one thing only.

Not how it was a "Messi night" at the Camp Nou for the Gunners, nor how Pep Guardiola managed to make his team so dominant, and neither was the talk about Barca's wasted chances in front of goal.

The fallout from Tuesday's game was all about Massimo Busacca and Robin Van Persie, the former sending off the latter for apparent time wasting.

Even two days on from the match Arsenal players are venting their frustrations, with Johan Djourou telling the Daily Star: "I am Swiss and the referee was Swiss. I feel a sense of shame. He had no right to take a decision of that kind. It changed the course of the game."

"At this level of football you cannot ­accept decisions like that."

He follows Van Persie (obviously), Jack Wilshere, Bacary Sagna, Samir Nasri, Arsene Wenger, etc... in publicly blasting the referee about his performance, or rather, that decision.

It's almost like The FA and FIFA ExCo committee 2018 World Cup scandal all over again.

In any case, what about the man himself, Massimo Busacca? We've all heard the story about how bad his decision-making was that night, but we haven't heard his side to it, his reason (and of course there has to be a reason) why he felt it justifiable to send off Robin Van Persie.

Sergio Busquets, amongst other Barca players, stuck up for the ref telling a UK tabloid, "The sending off was fair. He shot after the whistle had gone to waste time."

But that's it. There was no public backing from UEFA, whose rules Busacca was enforcing on the pitch, as his job requires. And nor was there much backing from the referee associations and unions. 

So why did Massimo Busacca make that decision? Only he himself truly knows, but in reality there are many reasons why Van Persie should've gone.

First of all, it is most definitely in the official UEFA and FIFA laws of the game, as well as in the UEFA Champions League competition rulebook, that time wasting is a bookable offence.

And if one is to look at the interpretations of that rule, provided by FIFA and UEFA, continuing to play after the referee's whistle has been blown is one of those interpretations.

The whistle was blown for offside, the opposition player around Van Persie stopped, the goalkeeper the Dutchman was facing had also stopped, and it was clear to everyone that play had been halted.

Therefore, Van Persie clearly would've known play had stopped, yet continued to kick the ball. Thus he was time wasting, and by the letter of the law deserved a yellow card. Rules are rules, whether it was his first or second the fact remains that by law he deserved that yellow card. 

Of course the laws of the game needn't always be applied so stringently, but with Busacca under pressure from the watchful eyes of UEFA delegates, the least he could do was to do his job properly, i.e. enforce the laws of football, as every single referee around the world is taught.

Also, Robin Van Persie and his Arsenal teammates moaned about the cacophonous sound of 95,000 people meaning he didn't hear the referee's whistle.

If that's the case, how come he heard every single other decision beforehand that the referee made, and how come every other player on that pitch heard the decision for offside before Van Persie wasted time?

The players can hear each other well enough to talk and talk and talk on that pitch, so why can't they then suddenly not hear the referee's whistle for one decision, which coincidentally, preceded a bit of time wasting?

And anyway, there may have been 95,000 spectators inside the Camp Nou, but for all the people inside the stadium, they were actually quite quiet. It was the minority of travelling Gooners who made the most noise!

So overall it is clear why Busacca made that call. Arsene Wenger claims UEFA officials were shocked by that decision to send off Van Persie, but in reality, how can they be anything other than shocked at how well the referee enforced the laws and interpretations of those laws that their governing body has set?

Of course, though, UEFA would be embarrassed. More negative publicity for such a hypocritical, corrupt organisation that's answerable to nobody is never a good thing.

And just for the record, the referee we're talking about is one of the most high-profile and high quality in football.

Widely accepted as "the best referee in Switzerland", Busacca took charge of the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final between Barca and Manchester United, the 2007 UEFA Cup Final, and has refereed at Euro 2008, the 2006 World Cup and the 2010 World Cup.

Loved by the Zurich-based FIFA, Busacca has been labelled the "best referee in the world" by Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, a comment he made before the referee made that infamous decision.

Arsene Wenger may insist the decision was wrong, and in an ideal world the referee wouldn't have made that call, but the truth is, the Arsenal manager won't get many better referees than Massimo Busacca taking charge of his team's matches.

Follow Yoosof Farah on Twitter @TheSportsJourno