The Three Lions suffered a 2-1 defeat to reigning World Cup champions France on Saturday night with Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud scoring either side of Harry Kane’s penalty. However, it was the officiating team that was the main talking point.
Former England coach Garry Neville branded Brazilin referee Wilton Sampaio as a “joke referee”, adding that the 40-year-old was “bad, rank bad”, with several key and clear decisions not going the way of England.
France’s opener from Tchouameni came 35 seconds after Bukayo Saka was tripped by Bayern München’s Dayot Upamencano, a foul that went unnoticed by Sampaio and his linesman. With the same player going unpunished for tripping Harry Kane, a call that was referred to VAR for a possible penalty but was seen as the contact was outside the box, nothing was able to be awarded.
With the number of calls not being penalised against Gareth Southgate’s team, emotions were running high as Mason Mount was shoulder barged off the ball inside the box by Theo Hernandez, with Sampaio and his assistant failing to spot the infringement. The defender did escape a red card, but after a VAR check the penalty was given.
Neville on SkySports News said of the referee : “He had an absolute nightmare. A joke of a referee. I’m not saying it was all down to England’s defeat – people will say it is excuses – but he’s just a bad referee, rank bad.”
England defender Harry Maguire also spoke out after the match about the referee telling BBC Sport “Really poor, very poor. From minute one… I can’t really explain how bad his performance really was, I don’t want to go into too much, but his decisions were really poor throughout the game.”
The 40-year-old has been in headlines previously for his officiating, with Lionel Messi reportedly posing on his Instagram account ‘Difficult match, difficult to play. A lot of wind, they were playing deep, leaving little space for us.
‘The referee always does this when he referees us, as if he does it on purpose.” The post has now since been deleted.
Sampaio who has only refereed two matches pervious in the tournament, both wins for The Netherlands, agaisnt Senegal and USA, has not been confirmed to take charge of the final.
