Middlesbrough vs. Seville

Middlesbrough's luck ran out on Wednesday night in the UEFA Cup Final. Seville dominated the first half and took a deserved lead with an unstoppable header from Luis Fabiano. Middlesbrough responded in the second half and had several chances that Mark Viduka, in particular, failed to convert.

The turning point in the game was the clearest of penalties that was seen but not given by the referee, Herbert Fandel (again). It is a very sad state of affairs when one of Europe's top referees is not brave enough to make such a decision. There are two possible causes: incompetence or interference. I doubt it was just plain incompetence, although I have not watched enough of his matches to be sure.

By interference, I mean that the referee was probably told to do this or not to do that by someone from UEFA. From his performance on the night, it seems very likely that he was told to watch out for diving and not to give free kicks unless there was a clear foul. This type of interference affects people (even referees) at a subconscious level, causing them to doubt their own judgement, and it leads inevitably to poor decisions on the field.

Had Middlesbrough scored, the Seville players would have started to panic about another Middlesbrough comeback and I think the outcome could have been very different.