Football You Missed: More bad reffing, Kokorin gets out of jail and Ricksen tributes
1. MORE BAD REFFING, THIS TIME SPANISH STYLE
After the Bundesliga debacle from Sep 14, in which a referee came extremely close to ruining the match between Union Berlin and Werder Bremen, more bad reffing came in the match between Stade Rennais and Celtic in the Europa League.
Celtic, after being denied a clear penalty when Ryan Christie was brought down in the area, were somewhat fortunate to then get the next one when James Forrest dangled his leg and stumbled over the defender's tackle. But the baffling moment came when substitute Vakoun Bayo, already on a booking after an elbow moments after coming on, followed into a dropped shot by the keeper and did... nothing. Which was enough to convince the referee to send him off. Judge for yourself. Where is VAR, Europa League?
2. RUSSIAN HOOLIGANS GET OUT OF JAIL EARLY
After attacking a ministry official and running down a driver, Russian footballers Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamayev, despite being given 18 month sentences and only being jailed earlier this year, are out of jail and seemingly back in the game. Kokorin is set to walk back into old club Zenit after signing a deal with them until the end of the season. Let's hope the prison training facilities were up to scratch.
You can read the full story here.
3. RANGERS PAY TRIBUTE TO RICKSEN
Fernando Ricksen, a massive contributor to the success of Rangers over a six-year period from 2000 until 2006, has died after a long battle with Motor Neurone Disease. The Dutch international was diagnosed in 2013 and given 18 months to live, but proved an inspiration to many in his battle to raise awareness for the condition. Rangers fans paid tribute to him during their Europa League clash with Feyenoord on 19 September.
4. WHAT IS HANDBALL? THIS IS HANDBALL
With the change to the regulations recently and VAR able to keep an even more eagle eye on proceedings, people seem to have forgotten what handball even means any more. But just for clarification, in any game of association football, at any time in history, Gareth Bale's nudge with his arm into his path before he lobs in an admittedly great goal against PSG is ALWAYS handball, and always has been.
5. EUROPA LEAGUE GOALKEEPERS HAVE A BAD NIGHT
Igor Akinfeev, Loris Karius, Thomas Kaminski and Denes Dibusz, among others of ill-repute, dropped absolute howlers in the Europa League on Sep 19, instantly dragging the quality of the competition down in the process. Dibusz and Akinfeev were guilty of simple handling errors, while Karius ran fully 30 yards from goal only to miss the ball, and Kaminski... well, his has to be seen to be believed. Here's hoping for an improved matchday two.