Infantino cautious over rule changes following Suarez penalty

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has called for caution over the use of Video Assistant Referees (VARS) following the awarding of a controversial penalty to Luis Suarez in Barcelona’s extraordinary Champions League triumph over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

A Neymar-inspired Barcelona scored three goals from the 88th minute at Camp Nou to complete one of sport’s most stunning comebacks and book a quarter-final place with a 6-5 aggregate victory.

But Barca’s dramatic fightback included a controversial penalty, converted by Neymar for their fifth goal in a 6-1 win on the night, after Suarez went down in the box under minimal contact from PSG defender Marquinhos, prompting PSG coach Unai Emery to criticise referee Deniz Aytekin.

FIFA has already started trialling the use of VARS, but Infantino insisted the decision by German official Aytekin to award a spot-kick to Suarez – who had already been booked for diving – was not clear-cut.

“Whether that particular case was an injustice or not, we can leave it to the judgement of the referee,” Infantino told reporters on Thursday.

“What we saw was an incredible football match, whatever the result would have been at the end. This shows that football is really a fantastic game. Whenever you have the feeling you have seen everything, something else comes along that you’ve never seen before. It’s just amazing and incredible.

“We have to really be careful in the International Football Association Board if we want to touch the rules, because football is such an incredible game.

“In this case, I don’t know if it was a clear mistake or not. But in future, when there are clear mistakes, this will be corrected by the video assistant referee so we can make sure decisive matches are not decided by mistakes made in good faith by the referee.”