Ander Herrera and Marco Verratti both claim referee Bjorn Kuipers swore at PSG players during their defeat to Manchester City.
And any right-mind response to their allegations would be … so what?
The antics of these characters would make a saint swear.
Apart from not knowing his arm from his shoulder, Kuipers had a pretty decent Champions League second leg.
And if the Dutch referee did make the odd mistake, then who could blame him?
Trying to concentrate when you have a field full up of grown-ups moaning and crying in your ear must be a thankless task.
And that is not to mention the winding-up, the sly kicking and the petulance that eventually saw Angel di Maria sent off for his offence against the saint that is Fernandinho.
Yes, PSG lost their heads but let’s not paint City as flawless.
No wonder Kuipers might have taken his eye off the ball. No wonder he somehow indulged Fernandinho, who must have broken his own personal record when going unsanctioned for what could easily have been deemed a yellow card offence after about 60 seconds.
And quite how he got through the game without receiving yellow card is nothing short of miraculous.
But Ferandinho’s persistent fouling was not the most heinous theme of the match. It was the general yelping.
Somehow, it has long been accepted that players screaming at the referee is just part of the fabric of the game.
It is a stain on the fabric of the game, more like it, but one we all seem to accept.
Remember when there was going to be zero tolerance of players brandishing imaginary cards? Or was that just a figment of my imagination?
Riyad Mahrez was again magnificent but still finds time to wave the bogus yellow.
It is pathetic. Again, it might be the memory playing tricks but wasn’t there a time when players occasionally pleaded with referees not to book an opponent?
When fair play was considered a badge of honour?
Kuipers got the Di Maria dismissal right but, as shown by his erroneous penalty award for PSG, was not that great.
But the feigning and duplicity that streaks through this sort of game makes it easier to forgive refereeing inconsistencies. Or, at least, it should make it easier to forgive.
Judging the malice of a challenge is a thankless task when you have the likes of Neymar hitting the deck with such relentless theatricality.
There lies the problem. In a contest like this, with snide-foul experts such as Fernandinho and Ander Herrera in operation, a referee such as Kuipers has enough on his plate without the body-flinging and yelping to sidetrack him.
Such is the quality of teams such as Manchester City and PSG, the game’s governing bodies seem happy to let the game’s con-artists carry on regardless.
No wonder the likes of Kuipers cannot tell his arm from his shoulder.
