Scandal in the semi-final of the European Championship. The star left no stone unturned on the judges
The level of refereeing in the semi-finals of the European Volleyball Championships leaves much to be desired. The referees were uncertain and made some irrational decisions. However, there was a scandal in the Italy-France match. The Tricolor star didn’t bite his tongue.
The semi-finals of the European Volleyball Championships brought a lot of emotions, not only the good ones. Two teams, this year Poland and Italy, were happy to advance to the grand final. In turn, Slovenia and France must swallow the bitterness of defeat and be content with the match for third place.
Low level of refereeing in the European Championship semi-finals
The referees also aroused a lot of emotions among the volleyball players; to put it mildly, they were not the best that day. In the match between Poland and Slovenia, the main referee, Slovak Igor Porvaznik, was very uncertain and some of his decisions could be irritating. Polish volleyball players argued with him several times, which resulted in a yellow card for Norbert Huber. Łukasz Kaczmarek could also have earned a card, but the captain, Aleksander Śliwka, intervened effectively on the attacker’s behalf and told him directly: “don’t punish us for your mistakes.”
Unfortunately, there was a scandal in the match between France and Italy. With the score at 2-0 and the match ball at 24:23 for the Italians. The Tricolor star, Ervin N’Gapeth, took the field and sent a bomb right at the line. The referee of this match, Stanislava Simić, decided that he was out and ended the match.
The star of the French national team left no stone unturned on the referees
The French started to protest that it was a service ace, but they had no way to check it because they had already used two video verifications. The only solution in this case could be a challenge taken by the judge, but she decided not to do so.
Television replays later showed that… the French were right. After the match, the captain of the French national team, Benjamin Toniutti, thundered, confessing that he only wanted to see if the ball was in the pitch so that he could go to sleep peacefully. Ervin N’Gapeth went a step further and expressed strong words on his Instastories about the work of the referees of this match. “Lifelong ban from refereeing…” wrote the star of the French national team.
In this report there was a link to a post by photographer Daniela Tarantini, who asked under the photo whether “asking the referee for a challenge on a ball that could decide the semi-final is a lack of self-confidence or common sense?”
