In Braga, they nullify a clean goal against SL Benfica. At Estádio José Alvalade, they manage not to see a clear penalty against Sporting CP.
We are at a stage in the championship where anything goes in refereeing to extend the treadmill to Sporting. No time is wasted analyzing frames in Sporting’s areas, no yellow cards are shown and, when there are clear penalties, they turn a blind eye.
Imagine an international operator buying the rights to the Portuguese championship and watching this: a goal disallowed against Benfica due to a touch to the armpit, and, in another game, a scandalous unmarked penalty against Sporting, after Ricardo Mangas ran over a Rio Ave player, in a move that would completely relaunch the game.
The reaction would be obvious: they weren’t buying football, they were buying biased arbitrations. Because one thing is human error; another, quite different, is a criterion that changes depending on the shirt.
