#refereeing

#refereeing

FC Barcelona reports that it sent a formal letter this Saturday, February 14th, to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), addressed to its President, the President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), the head of VAR and the Director of Legal Advice, in which the Club expresses its deep concern about the repeated homogeneous criteria, the statement read.

It's too much for one person to control such a fast game on a very big pitch

I've spent 15 years in Italy, even when there was a referee behind the goal line. If there are tools to help referees make fewer mistakes, that's great, but from what I see, there's a debate about everything: penalties, free kicks, yellow or red cards. We know the referee is a human being. Today, I don't see any improvement in anything. There's nothing but controversy, with us and with any other team. I think we've taken a step backwards instead of forward.

Our staff put a lot of effort into sending those reports but from now on there's no point. There's no acknowledgement of what we're saying, it's just ignored. We get a reply but the reply is always in agreement with what's happened. It's not good enough. We're not going to waste our time on it, we're going to focus on what we're doing for Cardiff city and try to give our supporters and players the protection they need.

"After review, the ball hits the arm of the Wolves player, which is in a natural position so the on-field decision will remain," he announced over the tannoy. Former Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann said it was "without doubt the correct decision". "Hallam, officiating in his first Premier League match, made an excellent and courageous call to stick with his on-field decision of no handball," Cann told BBC Sport.

Not only did City manager Guardiola not agree with that decision, but he feels the Norwegian is being singled out too often. "He is the only striker in the world that makes more fouls than defenders do on him," Guardiola said. "That is his biggest attribute. That is really good. He is only the striker in my life that makes more fouls to defenders than defenders to him. I've never seen this."

Celtic are among a growing list of clubs showing an interest in highly-rated Hibernian midfielder Josh Mulligan. (Daily Mail), external Lawrence Shankland was in no mood to take any credit for Hearts' attempted fightback in the weekend derby defeat at Hibernian. (Edinburgh News), external Luke McCowan admits Celtic must find a way to plug their leaky defence as they cannot always rely on outscoring teams. (Daily Record), external