WILLIE COLLUM'S season to forget continued yesterday after he was roundly criticised for his performance during Monaco's 0-0 Champions League draw against Juventus, a result which cost the French side a place in the semi-finals of the competition.
Monaco were aggrieved at the non-award of a penalty and also felt that the Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini should have been sent off by the Scottish referee, who has been the subject of a number of controversies over the course of this campaign.
Chiellini was booked for deliberate handball after slipping to the turf in the first minute. Given Joao Moutinho was aiming to hare through on goal, Monaco felt Collum should have shown a straigh red. That decision was compounded by Collum later in the game when he waved away a strong claim for a penalty-kick after Chiellini and Arturo Vidal appeared to sandwich Geoffrey Kondogbia inside the box.
Joel Quiniou, the French referee who sent off Uruguay's Jose Batista for fouling Gordon Strachan in the first minute in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, led the chorus of disapproval.
He said: "Chiellini made a dangerous tackle in the first half after his early booking. It endangered the opponent and should have been a second yellow card. Then there was a clear penalty to Monaco. The referee has got it wrong. It was unfortunate for Monaco the official made a couple of clear mistakes."
Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim, reluctant to risk the prospect of a UEFA tribunal, said: "For a Champions League quarter-final not to depend on the quality of the players - that makes me sad. I'm sure UEFA aren't happy about that either."
The contentious showing from Collum comes just five weeks after several Shakhtar Donetsk players lambasted him for showing a red card just two minutes and 38 seconds minutes into their 7-0 Champions League quarter final hammering against Bayern Munich. This latest controversy comes in a week to forget for Scottish officials, as the fall-out from Steven McLean and Alan Muir's failure to spot a clear handball in Celtic's Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness continues.
The Monaco defender Andrea Raggi was also furious at Collum's display.
He pointed out: "It was a clear red card for Chiellini. We needed a strong referee. To go out like that because of the decisions of the referees in both legs really hurt."
Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev joined in the Collum criticism and echoed a call that has been heard in Scotland in recent months following repeated refereeing blunders.
He said: "Decisions in both games by the refs have cost us. I am convinced that the time has come for using video refereeing."
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