Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has been criticised for “falling the wrong side of the line” following his reaction to the decision to overturn his side’s last-minute winner against Sporting in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The criticism comes from TalkSport pundit Simon Jordan, who was reacting to the events of Wednesday evening in the Champions League.
Tottenham thought they had scored right at the death to secure a 2-1 victory over Sporting, which would have secured the north London side’s passage to the knockout stages of the competition, but VAR ruled that goalscorer Harry Kane was in an offside position.
Conte didn’t hold back in his post-match press conference, as he fumed about the disallowed goal and VAR’s intervention.
“I would like to see if you can take this type of decision with a top team in an important game,” he said (via BBC Sport).
“I would like to see if VAR is so brave to take this decision.
“The ball is in front of Kane. I’m sorry but I’m really upset because you can assess the situation. I don’t see honesty in this type of situation. When I don’t see this, I become really upset.”
And Jordan believes that Conte’s comments following the game were “ridiculous” as it sends the wrong message out to those wanting more respect for match officials.
He said: “It was a ridiculous outburst after the game. To allude to the fact that there’s collusion and corruption and a focus on achieving something against Tottenham Hotspur is ridiculous.
“I understand the emotion. I understand the outburst to some extent. I don’t condone it.
“There is a balance between being responsibly invested and irresponsibly unaccountable, and [managers] are falling the wrong side of the line.
“And then he starts calling upon the management of Tottenham Hotspur to be able to go out and support his position and to support him. Well, shut your mouth, then! No one’s asking you to go to the ridiculous extremes that you’ve gone to.”
TIF Thoughts on Jordan’s comments…
We agree with Jordan, and whilst we can understand Conte’s frustrated reaction to what looked to be an incredibly tight offside call, we don’t believe that the “honesty” of the game deserved to be called into disrepute following the decision.
It looks likely that following the outburst, the Italian manager will be receiving a fine for his troubles as he looks ahead to a trip to Marseille next week, where a draw would see the club’s passage to the next stage of the competition confirmed.
We believe that Conte’s comments following the game were unacceptable and he may need to be reminded of his responsibilities following the game.