After depriving Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal the game-winning goal in Saturday’s contentious 2-2 draw against Serbia in a World Cup qualifying match, Dutch official Danny Makkelie has apologized.
During added time, Serbian defender Stefan Mitrovic made an attempt to stop Ronaldo’s goal-bound shot, but the ball had already crossed the goal line.
To the dismay of Ronaldo and his teammates, Makkelie waved play on without using the VAR or goal-line technology to assess the incident.
According to FIFA’s rules, all Makkelie could say was that she had apologized to the Portuguese squad and its coach, Mr. Fernando Santos, for what had occurred.
“We always put a lot of effort into making wise selections as a referee team. We are not at all pleased when we are in the news in this way.”
