By Matt Scott
February 29 – The Northern Irish referee Arnold Hunter has been drawn in to the match-fixing scandal surrounding Olympiacos over his performance in Anderlecht’s 2-1 Europa League win over the Greek champions last Thursday night.
Hunter gave a penalty to Olympiacos for handball in the 27th minute, giving them their only goal of the game, even though the Anderlecht centre-half Kara Mbodj had very clearly controlled the ball with his knee and his head.
News highlights of the match on the French-language Belgian channel RTL, broadcast on Friday, were introduced with a criticism from the presenter. “The Mauves were apparently the victims of several refereeing mistakes,” he said. The clip was introduced on the RTL website with the headline “They scandalised you: here are the enormous refereeing mistakes during the Anderlecht-Olympiacos match (video)”.
In the clip the sports reporter added: “The Mauves’ nightmare was called ‘Arnold Hunter’. From the kick-off the Irish referee took several decisions that were contested by the players. The heaviest consequence [was when he gave] a penalty for a handball by Mbodj. Except in slow motion you can see the player control the ball with his head.”
The highlights also made clear two separate incidents that involved potential red-card offences by Olympiacos players for which Hunter only issued yellow cards. The first of these was after only five minutes, when the last defender upended Frank Acheampong when he was clean through on goal.
The second incident involved a very heavy challenge on Filip Djuricic, again by the last Olympiacos defender with the Anderlecht player charging in on goal.
During the match commentary, lead commentator Marc Delire was succinct about the impression the refereeing errors left him with. “After so many mistakes, one after another, I think we can put Mr Hunter’s integrity in doubt,” said the commentator. Anderlecht went on to win the match in extra time to qualify for the round of 16. Olympiacos went on to secure their sixth consecutive Greek Super League title at the weekend.
Hunter is Northern Ireland’s first-category FIFA referee and Insideworldfootball contacted the Irish Football Association’s communications director, Neil Brittain, on Monday with a request for a statement on the Belgian allegations. He did not respond.
“Let’s not forget either that we are in Mr Evangelos Marinakis’s den,” added Delire. ”The Olympiacos president is all the same on bail and is accused of corruption and of having bought four Greek championships. In short, there is no smoke without fire.”
A criminal investigation in Athens has accused Marinakis of being the ringleader in an alleged match-fixing ring that locals say has held Greek football in its grip for years [see related article http://www.insideworldfootball.com/world-football/europe/17248-greek-court-turns-focus-on-mr-big-olympiacos-marinakis).
View the RTL video at http://www.rtl.be/sport/football/europa-league/elles-vous-ont-scandalises-voici-les-enormes-erreurs-d-arbitrage-lors-d-anderlecht-olympiacos-videos–797662.aspx
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