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Cup 2026

Do legends like Lionel Messi get treated differently by referees? Yes, but it’s complicated

Is Lionel Messi a special one with referees? Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

Yes, superstar players receive preferential treatment from referees, although nothing like as much as many fans seem to think.

But something else is also true: anything these players do on or off the field receives such a disproportionate amount of attention that it is impossible for them to receive a fair trial.

Lionel Messi’s clumsy/careless/reckless/downright dangerous tackle (readers, please delete as appropriate) on Algerian defender Aissa Mandi in Tuesday’s World Cup match is a case in point, maintaining what some observers see as a trend of the Argentine getting away with offences lesser mortals would be punished for.

Few referees would have dismissed him for the challenge — not because it was Messi but because there was no intent or intensity in his actions. Bear in mind that the ref was Szymon Marciniak, who was in charge of the 2022 World Cup final. We are not talking about a novice.

Check out the reactions of the Algerian players, none of whom saw any malice. Footballers spring to the defence of a team-mate who is harmed deliberately and nowadays are drilled to cause a fuss to ensure the VAR takes a long, hard look at the replays.

The collective shrug of Algerian shoulders would have been one of the considerations in the video review room, given that VARs the world over are lambasted for delaying the game when no one on the pitch seems interested in overturning the on-field decision. You may not like that, but it’s true.

If you want a more clinical process with more consistent outcomes, you’ll have to tolerate longer delays and leave officials in peace to make their judgements. I don’t see that happening any time soon.

On replay, the decision is more challenging, because there is no doubt that Messi’s studs are planted into Mandi’s calf. It looked painful, and his reaction appeared genuine.

Some VARs may have recommended an on-field review due to the potentially serious consequences of the tackle, which seemed to put Mandi at risk of injury. To that extent, Messi was fortunate, as the referee may have reached for his red card if shown slow-motion replays of the contact on the pitch-side monitor.

For a player to receive a straight red card for serious foul play, there must be evidence that they endangered their opponent’s safety or used excessive force.

Watching in real time, the referee would have seen no such thing. The contact looked incidental and accidental, not forceful and deliberate, and a free kick sufficed. Sure, Mandi was hurt, but he did not require treatment, making it harder to build a case for a red card.

I appreciate that some will interpret this analysis as a charter for players to feign the extent of an injury (which many already do) and surround the referee aggressively to get their opponent sent off (ditto).

But the world’s top officials are smart enough to recognise the difference between a player who is in actual pain or writhing around like a mid-tantrum toddler, and to distinguish between organic anger and confected rage.

If I had been refereeing, I would have joined Marciniak in awarding a free kick only. I would have been mistaken, but only because it should have been a yellow card.

Had I been on VAR duty, much would depend on the first replay I was shown, as this has a major impact on the final outcome. The protocol in England is to watch such challenges at full speed from a wide angle first to assess the nature of the tackle. On that basis, it is highly unlikely that I would have been tipped into an intervention based on the still images and high-definition replays.

I’d like to think that the result would have been the same if the roles were reversed, and Messi had been on the receiving end. That’s highly likely, but I could not look you in the eye and say so with certainty.

Referees are charged with employing strict impartiality, but at the same time are expected to be more forgiving of offenders who are ‘not that kind of player’ while not prejudging those with reputations, however well deserved.

In relation to superstars, officials can be damned either way. Some believe this level of debate only occurs because of the player’s fame; others will point out that you can’t have one set of rules for one footballer, and another for one who is less celebrated. Both arguments have substance.

The extent to which referees are swayed or even intimidated by the identity of a guilty player varies from one official to another. The very best can set all prejudice aside and judge each incident on its merits and in context, and every ref will swear that they are always striving to do so.

But there are few officials who can achieve this goal absolutely, as all know that the scrutiny that will follow an incorrect red card shown to a legend of the game will be unbearable. We’re only human.

Consider the treatment of my former colleague Michael Oliver, whose wife was bombarded with hateful text messages after he sent off Italian great Gianluigi Buffon. Being right did not save him, or her for that matter.

Any bias, subconscious or otherwise, is in the margins, and relates to decisions that could go either way. I am confident that Marciniak would have made the same call even if Messi had been on the receiving end of the same tackle.

Such is the cult of personality surrounding players such as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, rational debate is impossible. YouTubers, TikTokers and other online commentators will not be amassing clicks for exploring nuance, only for taking sides.

In the wake of Tuesday’s incident, there was a rush to dredge up footage or photos of Messi’s handball against the Netherlands in the 2022 World Cup quarter-final in Qatar — a very clear deliberate handball which was not punished by a yellow card.

Messi was not booked for this handball against the Netherlands in 2022 (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

That call was also in the margins, as the offence did not prevent the Dutch from launching a promising attack, but could easily have led to a caution as it was so cynical. As a result, Messi was free to commit a foul for which he was booked, safe in the knowledge he would only be receiving his first caution.

Messi’s foul on Tuesday carried more shades of grey, although most people will only have it on a slow-motion replay or a still image, rather than live, and their conclusions would have been drawn accordingly.

If only players would back up their oft-quoted claim that all they want is for referees to get decisions ‘right’ by giving us space to do so, rather than surrounding, hounding and intimidating them in an attempt to beat us into submission.

Wishful thinking, I know.

Jun 24, 2026

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