Referee explains why he went easy on Chelsea in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals

TPO - In the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Fluminense early this morning, referee Francois Letexier made a controversial decision when he awarded a penalty to Fluminense but then reversed the decision. He has just explained this.

In the 37th minute, in an attempt to defend, Trevoh Chalobah let the ball touch his hand. The situation happened in the penalty area and within the referee's line of sight. Mr. Letexier immediately pointed to the penalty spot.

When reviewing the incident, most people thought it was a penalty. The Chelsea defender had his hands close to his body and the ball hit his arm. This was a similar situation to Cucurella's handball in the EURO 2024 semi-final between Germany and Spain. The referee did not award a penalty either, but UEFA later admitted he had made a mistake.

However, in the situation at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, referee Letexier, after reviewing the VAR, did not decide that it was a penalty. He explained what happened: “After reviewing, the referee saw that Chalobah's handball occurred when his hand was in a natural position, meaning that this foul was not penalized.”

Two very similar handballs

This moment caused Fluminense to miss the opportunity to find an equalizer in a match where they were at a disadvantage after conceding a goal in the 18th minute. Fluminense eventually lost 0-2 to end their 2025 FIFA Club World Cup journey in a joint third place.

But this is still a historic achievement for the club. After the match, coach Renato Gaucho expressed his pride in his players. He said: “There is no doubt that Fluminense will leave with the highest confidence. After what we have done, we can hold our heads high. We know it is very difficult to face a very strong team like Chelsea. I think that thanks to us, Brazilian football has regained its prestige.”

Watch FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ live and exclusively in Vietnam on FPT Play, with the support of Budweiser - Global Sponsor of the tournament and Samsung AI TV brand, visit http://fptplay.vn

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/trong-tai-ly-giai-vi-sao-nuong-tay-voi-chelsea-o-ban-ket-fifa-club-world-cup-2025-post1758655.tpo