The Foul That Moved Inside the Box

Etihad Stadium, 18 February 2014, the 53rd minute of a goalless round-of-16 first leg. Iniesta played Messi clear through the centre. Martín Demichelis, caught out of position, lunged from behind and brought Messi down as they reached the edge of the penalty area; Messi fell inside it. Jonas Eriksson sent Demichelis off as the last defender and pointed to the spot. Messi sent Joe Hart the wrong way in the 54th minute. Dani Alves scored a second in the 90th.

UEFA's match report records the foul, the card and the penalty; it does not say where the contact began. Replays and post-match analysis placed the start of the challenge outside the area. Manuel Pellegrini said afterwards that the referee 'decided the game' and was banned by UEFA for three matches, one on probation, for the comments that followed.

The prosecution's argument is about a line and a referee's position. Demichelis's contact begins outside the area; Messi's momentum carries him inside; the law penalises a foul where it is committed, which makes this a direct free kick on the edge of the box and a red card, not a penalty. Eriksson did not consult his assistant. Pellegrini's second grievance is the passage of play before it: a Busquets foul on Jesús Navas that the referee, 'three metres from the player', did not give, from which Barcelona's attack developed.

The consequence is what makes it a Messi Files exhibit rather than a footnote. City had contained Barcelona for 53 minutes at home; within sixty seconds they were a man down and a goal down, and the tie was effectively over. A free kick on the edge of the area would have left City with ten men at 0–0. A penalty converted by Messi left them with nothing.

The red card is not in dispute, and that matters: Demichelis fouled Messi as the last man with a clear run on goal, which in 2013/14 was a straight red wherever it happened. The only question is the penalty, and the challenge — a lunge from behind — is exactly the kind of foul that begins at one point and completes at another. Contact that starts on the line and continues inside was judged, by many referees of the period, as a penalty; the 2016 clarification later said so explicitly for holding offences.

The defence also notes who made the accusation and how. Pellegrini's complaint that it was 'not a good idea to put a referee from Sweden in such an important match' was an attack on the official's nationality, not on the decision, and he apologised for it within three days. UEFA sanctioned the comments; it did not find that the referee had erred. Barcelona won the second leg 2–1 as well.

Law 12 in 2013/14 made denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by a foul a sending-off offence wherever it occurred — the 'triple punishment' era, before the 2016 change that reduced it to a caution for genuine attempts to play the ball inside the area. A foul is penalised at the place it is committed; a foul outside the area is a direct free kick. What the written law did not resolve, and referees judged case by case, was a challenge that begins outside and ends inside. There was no video review and no goal-line assistant consultation on the night.

City played the last 37 minutes with ten men, lost 2–0, and lost the second leg 2–1 for a 4–1 aggregate. Pellegrini said the referee 'was not impartial', named his nationality, apologised, and was suspended for three matches with one on two-year probation; he watched the return from the stands. The tribunal's replay picks up after the penalty, as City with ten men at 0–1: finish level and the tie is alive for Camp Nou.