Present at a press conference this Wednesday to take stock of the first part of the Marseille season, Pablo Longoria dwelled at length on the question of arbitration. The president of OM takes the example of his sanction by the Disciplinary Commission to highlight a lack of consistency in decisions.
The subject comes up again after almost every weekend. Present to the media this Wednesday to take stock of the first half of the Marseille season, Pablo Longoria addressed the question of arbitration at length. Since the start of this 2024-2025 financial year, Marseille leaders, whose voice has often been carried by Medhi Benatia, have increased their criticism against arbitration decisions.
>> Relive Longoria’s press conference
“We feel disadvantaged”
“We have seen a lot of surprising situations. The question of arbitration in France must be put on the table. This season, we feel disadvantaged,” assured the president of OM, who nevertheless began his remarks believing that “refereeing in football is one of the most difficult jobs”.
First of all, Longoria deplores a lack of consistency in decisions. “There are always decisions where it’s difficult to understand what the trend of the match is going to be. You end up with completely different refereeing from one match to another. I’m not talking about good or bad decisions. I’m talking about consistency between all the matches. We need to have more consistency in the refereeing.”
“You don’t have the level”
“Against Lille, in certain phases, contact is accepted but at other times, on a mini contact, there is a foul,” illustrates the Olympian president. “From one match to another, I don’t understand the situations on the pitch. The use of VAR changes from one match to another.”
Longoria broadened his remarks to the decisions of the disciplinary commission. At the end of October, he was suspended for a match after protesting against the exclusion of Neal Maupay during the match against Angers (1-1, October 4). “You want to know what I said to the referee to get me sanctioned? Against Angers, I said ‘You don’t have the level, you’re under too much pressure, my friend’. Others held other words and I do not understand this lack of coherence When there is a lack of coherence in life, I do not accept it There must be a reflection around this subject”, concluded the Spaniard. .
To better understand arbitration decisions, OM has enlisted the services of Frank Schneider, former Ligue 1 referee. He arrives as an arbitration consultant, an external service provider contract whose mission extends to in June 2025. “It’s normal to call on someone specialized,” Longoria explained this Wednesday. “The world of arbitration is complicated. Using a consultant allows you to have a more expert opinion than ours to communicate with arbitration in a more open way and not have bar discussions.”
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