Sergi Busquets Is a Disgrace To The Game Of Football

I have just watched Thaigo Motta be sent off for absolutely nothing in the Champions League semi final and I am disgusted. The referee should be ashamed of himself, his ineptness has ruined one of the most eagerly anticipated European fixtures of the decade.

The decision to dismiss Thaigo Motta was a total dereliction of duty. Either the referee  did see the incident, in which case he is totally incompetent and unfit to referee football at any level, or he didn't in which case he had no business producing a red card.

Motta's hand brushed against Busquets' face and the Barcelona player collapsed to the ground in a cynical attempt to have his opponent sent off. I think Busquet's behaviour was nothing short of disgraceful but players are players and inevitably they will seek to gain an advantage by any means possible in a game of this magnitude.

It is the job of the referee to prevent them from doing so and Frank De Bleeckere failed emphatically to do his job.

There are a number of possible explanations as to why he chose to dismiss Motta, and I find none of them remotely acceptable. Perhaps he was influenced by the 100,000 strong Nou Camp card, perhaps he was seeking to stamp his authority on a game increasingly punctuated by fouls or perhaps Busquet's melodramatic reaction convinced him, wrongly, that the contact must have been more than minimal.

The referee's job is to judge every situation on its individual merits, regardless of what else is going on in the match. Had De Bleeckere done this the game would have been allowed to continue and Busquets would have been lucky not to receive a booking for his shameful reaction.

I do not think that the game of football is one which lends itself to the use of television replays for officiating. However incidents like this, when the game has already been interrupted, would me far more efficiently dealt with if referees were able to refer to video evidence.

If Barcelona do not defeat Inter by a sufficient margin Motta's red should be repealed and justice will have been done. He can probably expect some form of sanction for his reaction to the sending off, when he appeared to attempt to throttle Busquets. Under the circumstances it may have been understandable but it was certainly not acceptable.

Barcelona would have been the neutral's team of choice to take the Champion's League due to their superior style but they have lost a lot of their allure after tonight's tie. If you believe you are the best you should not be forced to reduce yourself to cheating in order to outwit your opposition.

Sergi Busquets is a cheat and a disgrace to the game of football. However for me Frank De Bleeckere remains the real villain of the piece for allowing himself to be so easily deceived.

I hope UEFA will take some sort of retrospective action against Busquets for bringing the game of football into disrepute with his disgraceful actions. The players, the crowd and the viewing public all deserved better. This match should have been a showcase for European football, instead it has been totally tainted by a cheat.