A European shock led by a French referee. Clément Turpin has been appointed by UEFA to officiate during the match between Kylian Mbappé’s Real Madrid and Manchester City this Wednesday on the sixth day of the Champions League league phase (9 p.m.).
The one who is often described as the best French referee is a regular at high-end matches, since he notably found himself on the whistle for the final of the 2022 edition between Real and Liverpool, played at the Stade de France (1-0). On the pitch at the Santiago Bernabeu, Turpin will direct his 58th match in the most prestigious European competition.
Above all, it will be a return to competition for the 43-year-old referee, much criticized after his error made during the Ligue 1 match between AS Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain, on November 29 (1-0). Only ten minutes after kick-off, Lamine Camara was guilty of an uncontrolled tackle on the ankle of Lucas Chevalier, the Parisian goalkeeper.
Not (yet) sanctioned by the arbitration management
Despite the violence of the foul, the Monegasque midfielder only received a yellow card, M.Turpin not even being called by the VAR to review the images. Enough to provoke the wrath of PSG and its last rampart. “My career could have taken another turn,” Chevalier said after the game, supported by his coach Luis Enrique at a press conference. “Why didn’t the referee go see the images? You have to ask the person who decided this. I would like to talk a lot, a lot, a lot… But I prefer to say that Chevalier was very lucky, I think that is enough,” said the Spanish technician.
A few days after the match, Antony Gautier, the director of French football refereeing, admitted that Camara should have been expelled during the liaison committee organized with the presidents of professional clubs.
Appointed VAR assistant this weekend during the match between Le Havre and Paris FC, Clément Turpin has not played on the field again since this episode. A decision not considered as a sanction on the part of the refereeing management, since it was already recorded before the match at the Louis-II stadium. We will have to follow the appointment of referees for the 16th day of Ligue 1 to see if Turpin’s superiors actually decide to sanction their flagship referee, but this seems unlikely.
On the other hand, his rating – all L1 referees are rated for each of their performances – will necessarily be impacted by his error in the Principality. A forgotten red card generally equates to the loss of half a point.
This season, the French official has already managed two Champions League matches: Galatasaray-Liverpool (1-0) on September 30 and Olympiakos-PSV Eindhoven (1-1) on November 4.
