Man United news: Ex-Fifa official issues ‘100%’ claim as controversial Cristiano Ronaldo footage emerges
Ex-Man United striker Cristiano Ronaldo did not deserve a penalty kick during Portugal’s 3-2 win over Ghana last week (24 November), according to Keith Hackett.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee claimed Ronaldo “manufactured” the contact and did not “100 per cent” deserve a penalty kick.
The 37-year-old went down after a challenge from Southampton’s Mohamed Salisu and referee Ismail Elfath immediately pointed to the spot.
He converted the penalty to open the scoring and become the first player to score in five different World Cups.
“What you have here is the dilemma for referees,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“A player makes contact in a manufactured way. What he’s done is, he knows that if he gets a touch he’s going to go down.
“I don’t think that’s worthy of a penalty kick. The reality is it’s a judgement call and I think it’s a harsh judgement.
“For me, I think Ronaldo is very clever, he knows what he’s done and has done it in the past to win penalty kicks. This is a manufactured action by Ronaldo to secure a penalty kick.
“The referee’s bought it. In fairness to the referee and VAR, these are the real difficult decisions that I thought VAR would help with.
“If I’m the referee and am going to point to that penalty mark, it’s got to be a 100 per cent a penalty kick, a belt and braces penalty kick award.
“You ask yourself the question, if that had happened in midfield would the referee have awarded a free-kick? Under the current approach to refereeing, the answer, in my opinion, is no.”
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