The shoe is raised dangerously high, and the referee, given only one split-second view of it, red-cards the offending player. Uproar. The e-mails, the television commentaries, the tweets pour in.
Some said Manchester United had been robbed by the Turkish referee’s decision to send off its winger, Nani, in the Champions League against Real Madrid on Tuesday. Others said the referee, Cuneyt Cakir, had done his duty, gone by the book and punished dangerous play.
Either way, a game played between two clubs worth more than a billion dollars apiece and televised live around the globe was deemed to have been perverted by a single call from the arbiter.
Nobody knows whether United would have gone on to win the contest. It led at the time of the red card, but it ultimately lost, 2-1, after being reduced to 10 men against 11 for the remaining half-hour at Old Trafford Stadium.
Read more: Manchester United Shouldn't Play the Blame Game - NYTimes.com
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