Referees' Performances | 2025/26

[Cobwebcat]

Even rival fans are saying that was 12 vs 11 last night.

 

[Gordyola]

I had no problem with Foden’s yellow but having given that card, as a ref you have set the bar for the rest of the game. Problem was he decided not to use the same bar for Madrid. As for not showing Rudiger a second yellow the club should raise that with UEFA and the match assessor. There can be no justification for not sending him off, all criteria for showing a card were met. The only explanation is the ref is a cheat.

Agree with the above but, not a cheat. I think he was incompetent, a ref who gives a Fk when a player falls over is, then he favored Real as he was scared stiff of their perceived status, and the crowd basically a homer. If he was a cheat then he could easily have not give our pen and at a pinch give theirs I know VAR got involved and he was probably scarred of going against them as well Basically a shit house

 

[ballbag]

He was terrible last night. No ifs or buts about it. Absolutely terrible. No excuse for it.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

A good angle of that challenge,

I have to give Doku a lot of praise for this.

That look awful from the long range 'live' tv camera, never replayed, no surprise.

 

[Blue Mist]

Agree with the above but, not a cheat. I think he was incompetent, a ref who gives a Fk when a player falls over is, then he favored Real as he was scared stiff of their perceived status, and the crowd basically a homer. If he was a cheat then he could easily have not give our pen and at a pinch give theirs I know VAR got involved and he was probably scarred of going against them as well Basically a shit house

You have stated the ref did not act impartially because he was scared of their status. You may be right.
Clement Turpin has been on the fifa list since 2010 and in the Elite Group since 2012
He has refereed in every Uefa tournament and World Cup since but.... it seems he has never been given the big games, quarter/semi finals, finals etc. Obviously not considered good enough after all this time.
Further, this is the first time Real have lost in the 9 games he's refereed.
I was amazed when I looked his stats up, perhaps rather than bent as I put last night, he is just useless and scared of upsetting 'big' clubs.

 

[.db.]

A good angle of that challenge,

I have to give Doku a lot of praise for this.

I love it when players get up and get on with it when there’s not actually owt with them. How many footballers would just roll around pretending to be in agony there?

Refreshing to see!

 

[Manc Born & Bred]

Agree with the above but, not a cheat. I think he was incompetent, a ref who gives a Fk when a player falls over is, then he favored Real as he was scared stiff of their perceived status, and the crowd basically a homer. If he was a cheat then he could easily have not give our pen and at a pinch give theirs I know VAR got involved and he was probably scarred of going against them as well Basically a shit house

He didn't give our penalty and did give theirs, that's the point, he cheated in my eyes. For once VAR actually helped us but no way could he not give the penalty once VAR was involved and of course VAR had to check whether in or out and it was a long way from being in. In was conned by the dive and roll of Vinicius.

 

[Plain Speaking]

Mate, he was shameless last night. One of the most one sided and incompetent refereeing displays of my lifetime watching City. Up there with Lahoz, Wilkie and Alf Grey.

1. Booking O’Reilly for touching Diaz, who promptly dived, on the shoulder, as he ran into the box.
2. Not then giving Rudiger a second yellow for the exact same challenge on Savinho.
3. Not giving Rudiger a second yellow for a deliberate off the ball body check on Cherki.
4. Not going back and sending off, or even booking, Valverde for a wild two footer on Doku.
5. Not awarding City a penalty for a rugby tackle by Rudiger on Haaland that was visible from outer space (a decision that had to be corrected by VAR).
6. Awarding Madrid a penalty for a challenge on Vinicius that was outside the box (a decision that had to be corrected by VAR).
7. Not booking any Madrid players for relentless, rotational fouling on Doku.

I respect your opinion. It was a tough game to officiate, the atmosphere was intense. I agree there were inconsistencies, and Rudiger was very lucky to avoid a second yellow. Also Diaz seemed to dive upon O Reilly's slight touch to his shoulder. However many players on both sides seemed to go down easily, trying to win free kicks/yellow cards. Doku was fouled a lot, but not every challenge was a foul?

Over the whole match City did pretty well from the officiating team, (including VAR), considering the pressure from the home support? We have to be careful demonising referee's.

IMO Lahoz and Walton are in a category of their own, (don't know about Wilkie and Grey?).

Imo Turpin although not perfect, wasn't that bad? (I have never thought he's a biased **** that hates us, which is how I would describe Lahoz and Walton.)

 

[mattcity5]

I respect your opinion. It was a tough game to officiate, the atmosphere was intense. I agree there were inconsistencies, and Rudiger was very lucky to avoid a second yellow. Also Diaz seemed to dive upon O Reilly's slight touch to his shoulder. However many players on both sides seemed to go down easily, trying to win free kicks/yellow cards. Doku was fouled a lot, but not every challenge was a foul?

Over the whole match City did pretty well from the officiating team, (including VAR), considering the pressure from the home support? We have to be careful demonising referee's.

IMO Lahoz and Walton are in a category of their own, (don't know about Wilkie and Grey?).

Imo Turpin although not perfect, wasn't that bad?

The 2nd half was as one-sided a refereeing performance I've seen in a while. Not blatant giving a side stuff that doesn't exist and etc, but it really wasn't far off that.

And that's me ignoring the penalty decisions in the first half and giving him a bit of leeway there.

You're right that Doku was fouled a lot, but from that Valverde challenge we know he'll play on if he can. There were a good few fouls on him not given.

I have always previously thought he was a good ref. Maybe he always favours the bigger side, and that's us against most teams these days. Maybe I've just thought he was good because we previously got the decisions, I don't honestly know.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

I respect your opinion. It was a tough game to officiate, the atmosphere was intense. I agree there were inconsistencies, and Rudiger was very lucky to avoid a second yellow. Also Diaz seemed to dive upon O Reilly's slight touch to his shoulder. However many players on both sides seemed to go down easily, trying to win free kicks/yellow cards. Doku was fouled a lot, but not every challenge was a foul?

Over the whole match City did pretty well from the officiating team, (including VAR), considering the pressure from the home support? We have to be careful demonising referee's.

IMO Lahoz and Walton are in a category of their own, (don't know about Wilkie and Grey?).

Imo Turpin although not perfect, wasn't that bad? (I have never thought he's a biased **** that hates us, which is how I would describe Lahoz and Walton.)

I’d forgotten about Walton. What a City hating bastard he was!

Grey was the ref who penalised Kevin Reeves for the hitherto unknown offence of ‘illegal jumping’ at Anfield in the ‘81 League Cup semi, and in the process robbed us of a place at Wembley.

Wilkie was the ref who sent off Cantona at Selhurst Park. He didn’t then ref United at the Swamp for over a year and when he did, to curry favour with claret conk, he awarded United a truly preposterous penalty in a FA Cup tie against City that to this day no-one has ever been able to explain what it was for

 

[Plain Speaking]

I’d forgotten about Walton. What a City hating bastard he was!

Grey was the ref who penalised Kevin Reeves for the hitherto unknown offence of ‘illegal jumping’ at Anfield in the ‘81 League Cup semi, and in the process robbed us of a place at Wembley.

Wilkie was the ref who sent off Cantona at Selhurst Park. He didn’t then ref United at the Swamp for over a year and when he did, to curry favour with claret conk, he awarded United a truly preposterous penalty in a FA Cup tie against City that to this day no-one has ever been able to explain what it was for

Thanks for your helpful explanation. ****'s I wanted to like your post but given the horrible behaviour you had described couldn't do it! Grey and Wilkie can join Walton and Lahoz.

I am still convinced it was the appointment of Lahoz as ref in the CL final that made Pep play without a dm. Pep thought Lahoz was going to give our dm 2 yellows and not be accountable to var! I don't blame Pep I blame UEFA who appointed Lahoz, knowing he would knobble us.

 

[fierydan]

Agree with the above but, not a cheat. I think he was incompetent, a ref who gives a Fk when a player falls over is, then he favored Real as he was scared stiff of their perceived status, and the crowd basically a homer. If he was a cheat then he could easily have not give our pen and at a pinch give theirs I know VAR got involved and he was probably scarred of going against them as well Basically a shit house

he had no choice with Madrids penalty,VAR told him it was outside the box.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

I love it when players get up and get on with it when there’s not actually owt with them. How many footballers would just roll around pretending to be in agony there?

Refreshing to see!

Ref should have signaled play on then gone back and sent him off. Even though Doku rode the challenge it was still reckless and out of control. I guarantee we'll see lesser challenges that results in a sending off this season.

 

[micky_blue]

Agree with the above but, not a cheat. I think he was incompetent, a ref who gives a Fk when a player falls over is, then he favored Real as he was scared stiff of their perceived status, and the crowd basically a homer. If he was a cheat then he could easily have not give our pen and at a pinch give theirs I know VAR got involved and he was probably scarred of going against them as well Basically a shit house

Had to change the penalty decisions as VAR told him to, looking at the screen is just for show

 

[1961_vintage]

Imo Turpin although not perfect, wasn't that bad?

Would you mind doing my end of year performance review?

 

[bluesteve1964]

I’d forgotten about Walton. What a City hating bastard he was!

Grey was the ref who penalised Kevin Reeves for the hitherto unknown offence of ‘illegal jumping’ at Anfield in the ‘81 League Cup semi, and in the process robbed us of a place at Wembley.

Wilkie was the ref who sent off Cantona at Selhurst Park. He didn’t then ref United at the Swamp for over a year and when he did, to curry favour with claret conk, he awarded United a truly preposterous penalty in a FA Cup tie against City that to this day no-one has ever been able to explain what it was for

It's a long time ago but I thought Reeves' disallowed goal was in the 1st leg at Maine Road.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

The 2nd half was as one-sided a refereeing performance I've seen in a while. Not blatant giving a side stuff that doesn't exist and etc, but it really wasn't far off that.

And that's me ignoring the penalty decisions in the first half and giving him a bit of leeway there.

You're right that Doku was fouled a lot, but from that Valverde challenge we know he'll play on if he can. There were a good few fouls on him not given.

I have always previously thought he was a good ref. Maybe he always favours the bigger side, and that's us against most teams these days. Maybe I've just thought he was good because we previously got the decisions, I don't honestly know.

I did think he gave us a throw in when it should have gone the other way, but I think it was more of a guess than him being a twat.

Everything else was very one-sided though, and there was the usual stat-padding towards the end.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

It's a long time ago but I thought Reeves' disallowed goal was in the 1st leg at Maine Road.

You’re right, it was

 

[Donmcfc]

View attachment 177286
He always reminds me of that snivelling left wing wanker Owen Jones

I never knew he played on the left wing.

 

[Micky Blue]

Had to change the penalty decisions as VAR told him to, looking at the screen is just for show

I thought he looked absolutely mortified when he realised he had to give us a pen.
When he booked rudiger too his facial expression was almost apologetic.