Barcelona vs Arsenal 2011: The Van Persie Red Card, Explained

The tie before the whistle

Arsenal had beaten Barcelona 2–1 at the Emirates three weeks earlier, coming from behind through Van Persie and Arshavin. At Camp Nou, Messi scored in first-half stoppage time to level the aggregate, and Busquets' own goal in the 53rd minute put Arsenal back on terms on the night. The arithmetic at that moment was exact: 3–3 on aggregate, one away goal each, and extra time if nothing changed. Arsenal's own report described the tie as 'back in Arsenal's hands'; several outlets wrongly wrote that Arsenal led on away goals. They did not. The tie was level, and it was open.

The referee

Massimo Busacca had refereed the 2009 Champions League final and two World Cups, and was among the most senior officials in Europe. Months after this match he retired from the field to become FIFA's Head of Refereeing Development. No statement from Busacca explaining the second caution has ever been published; the rationale reported by Arsenal, Goal and the wire agencies is that he treated the shot as kicking the ball away after play had been stopped.

The decision

In the 56th minute Cesc Fàbregas played a ball over the top. Van Persie controlled it, the assistant's flag went up, Busacca whistled, and Van Persie struck the ball into the side netting. Replays timed the gap between whistle and shot at roughly one second. Busacca showed a second yellow card; the first had come on the stroke of half-time for pushing Dani Alves during a stoppage while Jack Wilshere lay injured. Arsenal played the last thirty-five minutes with ten men, Xavi scored in the 69th and Messi converted a penalty in the 71st after Laurent Koscielny tripped Pedro — a decision nobody disputed.

The law as written in 2011

Law 12 in 2010/11 listed 'delaying the restart of play' among seven cautionable offences, and the referees' guidelines specified 'kicking the ball away or carrying it away with the hands after the referee has stopped play' as an example. A second caution in the same match is a sending-off. On the letter of the law, the defence is straightforward: the whistle had gone, the ball was kicked, and the card followed.

The prosecution's answer is about threshold and intent. The guideline targets deliberate time-wasting; a striker completing a shooting motion a second after a whistle he says he could not hear, in a stadium of 95,000, is not the scenario the law was written for. That gap between what the law permits and what a referee would normally do with it is the entire argument.

The aftermath

Van Persie called the sending-off 'a total joke' and said the one-second gap made it worse, not better. Arsène Wenger said the decision cost Arsenal the game and that he was convinced Arsenal could have won the tie at eleven against eleven. UEFA charged both Wenger and Samir Nasri with improper conduct and banned each for one match, fining Wenger €10,000. Pep Guardiola, asked about Wenger, said the Arsenal manager had told him to congratulate the referee.

Goal's decision-by-decision review of Busacca's night found three calls to criticise: a Diaby challenge on Messi that went unpunished, an Abidal hand to a throat, and the second yellow. The penalty for Koscielny's foul on Pedro was, by every account, correct. The jury scores the card.

Cast your ruling

1. Exhibit AD

   The Whistle Van Persie Said He Never Heard

   Vote on the Van Persie second yellow · 0 jurors

Play this controversy

This match is playable. Replay the Tie After the Whistle Nobody Heard — a free browser football game puts you in control as Arsenal from the 58th minute, against a referee whose bias level was set by the jury’s verdict on this very incident.

Sources

• Arsenal.com — FC Barcelona 3–1 Arsenal match report
• FC Barcelona — match page, 8 March 2011
• ABC/AFP — Van Persie: red card 'a total joke'
• Al Jazeera — Wenger and Nasri charged by UEFA
• UEFA — Wenger, Nasri suspended for one match (17 March 2011)
• Goal — Every decision referee Busacca got wrong and right
• FIFA — Laws of the Game 2010/11 (Law 12, cautionable offences)

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