Barca-PSG Replay Petition hits 130,000 signatures

An online petition calling for Barcelona’s 6-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League to be replayed has gained over 130,000 signatures.

The victory at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening carried Barcelona through to the quarterfinals 6-5 on aggregate, with Sergi Roberto striking the clinching goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Real Madrid supporter Luis Melendo Olmedo began the petition on Friday, citing a string of what he felt were mistakes by referee Deniz Aytekin, and by Sunday afternoon the number of backers for his campaign had reached six figures.

The petition on change.org states: “I want to request a replaying of the Barcelona-PSG match.”

It then lists the reason as being: “Incidents that seriously damaged PSG. As a consequence of the refereeing of the German Deniz Aytekin who benefited Barcelona with his actions and his refereeing.

“That is why I question the aptitude of the referee for his serious mistakes made during the match.

“I present evidence to anyone who wants to see them.”

The petition then lists a succession of incidents that its founder considers Aytekin to have got wrong, beginning with Barcelona’s opening goal from Luis Suarez, which it says should have been disallowed for offside.

The petition said referee Deniz Aytekin made several mistakes during the Barcelona-PSG match.
Despite the numbers responding to the petition, the absence of any such appeal from PSG, who have accepted the result, means there is no prospect of UEFA ordering an unprecedented replay.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino spoke about the match on Friday and said football’s law makers should be careful with adjusting the rules.

Infantino added that video assistant referees (VARs) will in future ensure “clear mistakes” will be corrected, although the Swiss refused to comment on the controversial penalty award for a foul on Luis Suarez which resulted in Barcelona’s fifth goal.

It was reported by Spanish newspaper Marca on Thursday that Aytekin could be sidelined by UEFA for the rest of this season’s Champions League, after the scrutiny on his decisions.