Next Monday, November 16, UEFA will premiere a documentary on refereeing called “Man in the Middle”. If the content is up to the level of the trailer, of course, it will give a lot to talk about. For the moment, the body has published a summary of a couple of minutes in which the Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers recriminates Messi for his attitude on the pitch.
The image dates from the 2018/19 season, in the confrontation between Barcelona Y Liverpool. It's the first leg, before the Blaugrana debacle at Anfield. Kuipers addresses the Argentine star like this, realizing that he was wasting time: “Messi, come on! Hurry up, show me respect. You are always doing the same. Lets go!“.
The documentary-series produced by UEFA aims to see from the referee's perspective how a match of the highest level is handled, the pressure they have to deal with on the pitch and the situation their families are in in the face of everything that being a referee implies. In addition to the Messi's scene, the instructions that gave the VAR to Çakir to annul Agüero's goal against Tottenham in the 2018-19 edition or the reflections of the collegiate on the hardness of their profession.
“The professional rigor, motivation and dedication of some of the best referees in Europe stand out, in addition to showing the human part behind the figures that the players and fans see on the pitch “, he explains Roberto Rosetti, current head of arbitration of the European body. “It is very important for us and our family of referees,” he closes.