Were France Robbed by Rosetti?
That’s the question being asked on France WCB right now.
Ten minutes into today’s big big Serbia vs France World Cup qualifier in Belgrade, alliterative referee Roberto Rosetti awarded Serbia a penalty and sent young French keeper Hugo Lloris to the showers. Thereby more or less ending France’s chances of making up lost ground of the Group 7 leaders.
You can see the incident about 25 seconds into the above video. Did Hugo Lloris trip big Nicola Zigic?
Obviously Rosetti thought so. Though this is the same Roberto Rosetti that controversially red carded Man Utd’s Darren Fletcher in last season’s Champions League semi-final.
Nenad Milijas converted the pen of course, but France came back to draw 1-1 when Thierry Henry poked home after Vladimir Stojkovic spilled Nicolas Anelka’s shot.
Which leaves Group 7 looking a lot like this:
There are still two games left to play, but it’s looking very likely that France are looking at second place and a tricky playoff game. Which may not have been the case had they had 11 men on the field for longer than 10 minutes.
So take a look at the above video. Was it a penalty? Did Lloris deserve a red? And perhaps the bigger question.. given the recent rivalry between the two nations, why was an Italian referee in charge of an important France match?
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 26 comments.
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By john | September 9th, 2009 at 4:24 pm 
Really? Why even ask the question when the video above clearly shows that he did, in fact, trip Zigic?
Posted from 
United States
By Thomas | September 9th, 2009 at 4:39 pm Dude, john, there is no contact with the Serbian player. Watch the reverse angle. Maybe you could make a case for contact, but trip? Awful refereeing. The idea of giving someone like Hugo Lloris a red card is shocking to me in any circumstances. He’s the kind of keeper who would NEVER do anything warranting a red.
Posted from United States
By Foreverzidane | September 9th, 2009 at 4:46 pm Then he tries to make up for the huge error that he made by sending off the serbian player for a minor foul on Sagna into extra time, in which was too late.
Absolutely horrible over reaction to the penalty by red carding Lloris.
I have no idea why FIFA so stubbornly refuses replays.
Even though with 10 men France outplayed them and had a lot of good chances to seal the deal.
Thanks Mr. Rosetti !!!
By Shazback | September 9th, 2009 at 5:18 pm As incredible as it sounds (since L’Equipe sees roughly 5 major refereeing mistakes per match), L’Equipe agreed that it was a foul and warranted a red card because Lloris was denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Posted from 
Australia
By Foreverzidane | September 9th, 2009 at 5:20 pm Now will FIFA have the guts like UEFA to suspend the Serbian player for two games much like the Eduardo case against the Celtics? NOT!
By Foreverzidane | September 9th, 2009 at 5:22 pm @ Shazback, have a closer look at the replay instead of L’equipe trying to sell papers. Please have a good look at the reverse angle there is no contact hence no penalty and no red card.
By Daryl | September 9th, 2009 at 6:03 pm Apparently this penalty is some sort of Rorschach test.
By alessio | September 9th, 2009 at 6:18 pm Any controversial incident ends up being it.
From a neutral point of view, it does look like there was no contact, particularly in the reverse view. I’m not sure why Daryl claimed this was France being robbed by Rosetti though…it seems more of a case of the Serbian player conning him with a dive.
Posted from United States
By Laurie | September 9th, 2009 at 6:42 pm Alessio, the conversation Daryl and I had about it was: Why in the world would FIFA put an Italian in a situation where he has WC-or-no power? It’s lose-lose in this situation.
Posted from United States
By Cerberus | September 9th, 2009 at 6:54 pm It looked like contact, but it didn’t look deliberate. Definitely wasn’t a dive either way because the nastiness of how he went down and how clear he was on goal would have made it the single dumbest dive in the world (why go down in a potentially injury causing fashion with an open net in front of you). Plus none of that face-clutching bullshit, rather a “whoa, that was a bad roll”.
I suspect ref felt similarly, but there really are few options when you trip someone from behind when they are clear on goal, especially when you make them go down like that. I don’t think Lloris meant it and certainly wouldn’t have felt much contact, but still, yeech. More a red card for how nasty he went rather than how deliberate the foul…could have been career-ending.
Posted from 
Denmark
By alessio | September 9th, 2009 at 8:37 pm Would an Englishman or a Brazilian cause such suspicion, Laurie? Or a German? Let’s be honest, most western European countries have a negative relationship with the French. I full well understand the Italy-France rivalry, but I guess the question is if Uefa believed Rosetti could referee without bias. Clearly, they thought he could. At this point though, I think the French need to think about other reasons for their lethargic performances.
Posted from United States
By Thomas | September 9th, 2009 at 8:55 pm This performance was hardly lethargic!
Posted from United States
By alessio | September 9th, 2009 at 9:11 pm I didn’t watch, I mean any qualifying in where France has a +2 goal differential and is struggling for 2nd place.
Posted from United States
By Aku | September 9th, 2009 at 10:42 pm Regarding UEFA playoff, how many will go to WC2010?
Posted from 
Singapore
By Laurie | September 9th, 2009 at 11:23 pm Aku, four second place teams will advance. (More details in the comments on the France page.)
Also, for anybody who’s still not sure, here’s the video from the France Football Federation website with multiple high-res slo-mo replays. http://www.fff.fr/mediatheque/bleu/530374.shtml
Posted from United States
By Dustin | September 10th, 2009 at 12:05 am A little background on Rosetti. He was unscathed by the Italian Scandal of 2006 because he was said to have “too much integrity” to “make the right kind of calls.”
He’s not a cheat, if anything he made a very human mistake.
Posted from United States
By Peter Katsiris | September 10th, 2009 at 4:34 am Still, if France were robbed or not, the situation is not as controversial as the Switzerland vs. Greece game over the weekend. UEFA’s, and Switzerland’s favourite ref, Frank De Bleeckere handing out a red card to Greek defender Loukas Vyntra just before the half for absolutely nothing.
See for yourself over at the Greece Blog: http://greece.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-qualifying/video-response-was-it-worth-a-red.html
Posted from 
Canada
By Luka | September 10th, 2009 at 5:54 am Dive, dive, dive. But in all honesty – the referee has no choice other than to give this a penalty and an automatic red card – there is no such thing as “oh, it was early, a pen is ennough” etc in the rules. Clear goalscoring opportunity = straight red. BUT, it was a dive and Zigic should be suspended for 2 games. Will UEFA/FIFA do so? No. Because they are hypocritical, inconsistent, myopic retards.
Posted from Australia
By kingunited | September 10th, 2009 at 6:39 am it was a penalty and a red card, Lloris brought down Zigic, although he didnt mean it, he did touch him. All that nonsense about Rosetti being biased, well if you know your facts, Rosetti was, with Collina, the only ref in Italy to stand up against Luciano Moggi and Juventus and was born in Piedmont which borders on France.
Posted from 
Netherlands
By eap | September 10th, 2009 at 6:57 am ROSSETTI DID NOT ROB FRANCE.
ZIGIC ROBBED FRANCE WITH HIS DISGUSTING DIVE AND THE LINESMAN AS WELL.
JUST LIKE THE FRENCH TO WHINE ABOUT REFFING.
Posted from Canada
By yevy | September 10th, 2009 at 1:01 pm To everyone who included the words “no contact” in their comment: you don’t need to touch a player to commit a foul. If you use your body to impede an opponent without playing the ball, you are guilty of obstruction. As soon as Lloris stuck out his arms in front of Zigic’s legs and didn’t reach the ball, it was a penalty and a red unless Zigic somehow managed to still score.
To everyone who included the word “dive” in their comment: if you think Zigic should have hurdled over Lloris’s arms while letting the ball run away from him instead of going down like he did, then I have some lucrative business propositions for you.
Posted from United States
By john | September 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pm I agree with Daryl in that everyone who wants to see a dive will see one. I have a problem with the ‘if you look at the reverse angle’ argument – because it seemed clear enough from the initial angle there was in fact contact: watch Zigic’s ankle and tell me if you could make yours do that in mid air. As for the reverse angle, watch the leading, not the trailing hand. It’s hard to see because of the color of the keeper’s glove, but it’s still there: Contact. In any event, yevy is correct – fair call. Stop complaining.
But for the last time: Watch the LEADING HAND, not the trailing. 100% clear contact and foul.
By john | September 10th, 2009 at 5:28 pm Watch the leading hand, not the trailing hand. It’s a little hard to see it, because of the color of the keepers glove, but it’s obvious enough. Anyone who, after watching the goalie’s LEADING hand closely, still doesn’t see it, just doesn’t want to, and probably never will.
By Foreverzidane | September 11th, 2009 at 5:01 am Leading hand, underhand, overhand, still was a very very dubious call, and the red card to boot. Almunia made the same mistake two weeks ago and was only awarded a yellow! If you’re Anti-France that’s one thing but that was a an awful call. Not even a N.B.A. referee would call that contact.
Not even in the freaking N.B.A. that would be called contact.
Sorry I watched it as you said how the color of the glove is deceiving the eye, but the player had already decided to go down, to get the penalty,
TOUCHDOWN ZIGIC.
By Jack | September 13th, 2009 at 7:11 pm Rossetti is blind. Same guy who reffed the Euro 08 final. Ballack should have been sent off and yet to make up for his mistake denied the Jerries a chance for an equaliser in the dying minutes.
Posted from United States
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