Official, UEFA Punishes Barça Before Hosting Borussia Dortmund: 'Referee...'

Barça fully enters the decisive phase of the season by hosting Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Barça has high hopes in Europe, but the truth is that their good performance in the Champions League also depends on UEFA, which has recently been quite detrimental. There are many ways to harm, but Barça hasn't been lucky with refereeing, something that could repeat after UEFA's latest punishment before the Barça-Borussia Dortmund match.

The relationship between Barça and UEFA isn't bad, but it has been somewhat deteriorated due to the creation of the Super League, in which only Catalans and Real Madrid remain. Ceferin, UEFA's president, has a good relationship with Joan Laporta, but Barça's president doesn't trust him, especially after the latest decision before the Barça-Borussia Dortmund match. In the last few hours, the name of the referee who will take charge of the first leg of these quarter-finals between Barça and Borussia has been confirmed.

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Barça hopes that the referee and VAR won't be the main protagonists of the match, but the truth is that seeing UEFA's latest decision, there is concern. For this important match, UEFA has chosen a referee with little experience and track record in Europe, something that Barça finds illogical. Additionally, some sources from Barça even spoke of a "direct punishment to Barça," something that from UEFA seems unintentional, but is incoherent considering several factors.

Official, UEFA Punishes Barça Before Hosting Borussia Dortmund: "Referee..."

Barça and Borussia Dortmund will face each other this Wednesday (9 PM) in what will be the first major clash of these UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. UEFA has 'punished' Barça indirectly, as they have appointed a referee who is not liked at all in Can Barça. The one in charge of leading the match will be the Norwegian Espen Eskås, international since 2017, who already officiated Barça in the victory against Red Star in Belgrade.

Despite the good precedents with Eskås, Barça doesn't like the Norwegian's way of refereeing, who will be assisted by Dennis Higler in VAR. In fact, Barça considers Eskås's appointment almost a 'punishment,' as we are in a Champions phase where only the best referees should officiate. Eskås has officiated six matches in this Champions League and has an average of 3.17 yellow cards per match, something that should favor Barça, as the referee will penalize actions with relative ease.

The last match he officiated was in the Nations League. We are talking about the Croatia-France (2-0). The other team he officiated this year in the Champions League was Real Madrid, which comfortably overcame (0-3) Brest.