Arsenal: Ex-referee demands ‘ban’ for ‘cheating’ PSG star after his ‘absolutely disgraceful’ actions
A former Premier League referee claims Paris Saint-Germain star Gianluigi Donnarumma deserves a “ban” for his “disgraceful” actions vs Arsenal.
PSG have one foot in the Champions League final after Tuesday night’s 1-0 win against Arsenal at the Emirates.
2025 top scorer in Europe contender, Ousmane Dembele, netted the game’s only goal as PSG started brightly and ran out deserving winners in the semi-final first leg.
Arsenal grew into the game and forced Donnarumma into a couple of great saves, but the hosts were fortunate not to be picked off on the counter-attack towards the end of the match.
Luis Enrique’s side successfully ran down the clock and when trying to defend a corner, Donnarumma immediately went to the ground and won a free-kick following the slightest touch from England international Ben White.
Following this incident, former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett claims Donnarumma deserves “retrospective punishment” with a “ban” deserved.
“The football authorities must bring in retrospective punishment for acts of simulation,” Hackett told Football Insider.
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“This absolutely disgraceful behaviour is ‘cheating’ and those that work to uphold the integrity of our great game must ensure that action is taken and the goalkeeper is issued with a ban.
“This game was viewed around the world and does not set a good example of how the game should be played.
“The IFAB [International Football Association Board], in the opening sentences of the Laws of the game, talk about the philosophy and spirit of our game.
“Then they must do something to ensure that these comments by them are not tarnished.
“I see praise for the referee last night, but his team have failed to see this action by the goalkeeper or penalising Saka for a non-foul [after the winger was penalised for a push on Nuno Mendes].”
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Despite this, Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya reserved special praise for Donnarumma when analysing his side’s first leg performance.
“They started very quick with a goal and dominated the first 15 to 20 minutes,” Raya said.
“After that, I thought we dominated most of the game and created the chances. Donnarumma made some brilliant saves and it’s only half time.
“We take a lot of positive from this, we know they are a top, top team but credit to the players too. For the effort we put onto the pitch, we could have won the game.
“We know they keep possession a lot and they are really good at that. They had that chance and put it in the back of the net, obviously that went for them and that’s football. We had the chances to score but didn’t mange to find a goal.
“We’ve got to try and approach the game [next week] the same way. I thought we played really well and put them on the back foot, they created their chances as well and that’s part of football, but we created a lot of chances. We’ll approach it the same way and know we can win against any team.”
