World Cup referee has hilarious mishap as France and Spain’s semi-final halted
A World Cup referee suffered a hilarious mishap on Tuesday evening as he was forced to halt France and Spain’s semi-final
There was a brief pause during the clash
The referee at the centre of Spain and France’s World Cup semi-final was left with egg on his face after he suffered a hilarious mishap less than 10 minutes into the clash.
El Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton had to briefly halt the game after awarding Spain a free-kick in a dangerous position. Mikel Oyarzabal had been protesting about France’s wall edging forward, leading for the referee to reach for his spray.
However, Barton quickly realised he had managed to misplace his vanishing spray – leading to the hilarious scene of the fourth official having to rush onto the pitch to provide him with a can, allowing play to continue.
Ivan Barton needed support from the fourth official after forgetting his vanishing spray(Image: ITV)
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The set-piece eventually proved fruitless but the hold-up lasted more than a minute due to the officials’ blunder.
It wouldn’t have been the kind of attention that Barton desired as he was given the chance to referee two of the planet’s finest teams.
France were seeking to secure their spot in the World Cup final, four years after their thrilling loss to Argentina in Qatar, while the reigning European Champions harboured ambitions of moving to within 90 minutes of claiming the complete collection.
The 35-year-old found himself at the centre of proceedings 12 minutes later when he was compelled to make a crucial call in the semi-final as Lucas Digne was deemed to have fouled Lamine Yamal following Marc Cucurella’s delivery.
Oyarzabal was soon spinning away in delight after drilling home past Mike Maignan. This was the first penalty that the Salvadoran had given in his fourth game at this World Cup.
Prior to the all-European clash in Dallas, he had officiated Paraguay’s victory over Turkey, Japan’s stalemate with Sweden and Switzerland’s penalty shootout triumph over Colombia in the Round of 16, reports the Mirror.
Barton has been a FIFA-registered referee since 2018 and presided over his inaugural World Cup match four years later in the Middle East, where he refereed three games – including England’s Round of 16 victory against Senegal.
