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🚨 Pierluigi Collina dismisses comparisons between Lionel Messi's challenge and Folarin Balogun's red card: 🗣“One of the biggest mistakes in football is assuming that two incidents are identical simply because they look similar. Referees are instructed to judge every challenge based on the specific details of that action. In Messi's case, the contact is brief and he immediately withdraws his foot. There is no significant follow-through or excessive force. It may be considered a foul, but that alone does not make it a sending-off offence. Balogun's challenge is different. Whether the contact was intentional or accidental is not the only consideration. The referee must evaluate the point of contact, the force used, the follow-through and, most importantly, whether the challenge endangered the safety of the opponent. Those are the factors that determine whether serious foul play has occurred. Football supporters often compare two incidents from different matches, but referees cannot officiate that way. Every challenge has its own context and must be judged on its own merits under the Laws of the Game. For me, it is entirely possible for both decisions to be correct. Messi's challenge does not automatically deserve a red card simply because another player was sent off for a different incident. The details of each challenge matter, and in this case the level of danger in Balogun's tackle was clearly greater.”

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🚨 Pierluigi Collina dismisses comparisons between Lionel Messi's challenge and Folarin Balogun's red card: 🗣“One of the biggest mistakes in football is assuming that two incidents are identical simply because they look similar. Referees are instructed to judge every challenge based on the specific details of that action. In Messi's case, the contact is brief and he immediately withdraws his foot. There is no significant follow-through or excessive force. It may be considered a foul, but that alone does not make it a sending-off offence. Balogun's challenge is different. Whether the contact was intentional or accidental is not the only consideration. The referee must evaluate the point of contact, the force used, the follow-through and, most importantly, whether the challenge endangered the safety of the opponent. Those are the factors that determine whether serious foul play has occurred. Football supporters often compare two incidents from different matches, but referees cannot officiate that way. Every challenge has its own context and must be judged on its own merits under the Laws of the Game. For me, it is entirely possible for both decisions to be correct. Messi's challenge does not automatically deserve a red card simply because another player was sent off for a different incident. The details of each challenge matter, and in this case the level of danger in Balogun's tackle was clearly greater.”