Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 2:26 p.m. / Updated Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 2:29 p.m.
UEFA rejected the complaint that Barcelona made to Istvan Kovacs after the refereeing of the Champions League “quarters” match lost by the Catalans to Atletico Madrid, score 0-2.
The return of the quarter-finals was scheduled for today, April 14, from 22:00.
Barcelona, although publicly complained about several arbitration decisions, officially contested only one decision of the “central” in Carei.
UEFA declared Barcelona's complaint “inadmissible”
“Following the Champions League quarter-final first leg match on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, between FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid, Barcelona filed an appeal against a referee's decision — on April 13, 2026, UEFA's Ethics and Disciplinary Body declared the appeal inadmissible,” was UEFA's decision, according to the X account of mercato expert Fabrizio Romano.
What did the Catalans complain to UEFA
The phase claimed by Barcelona: Goalkeeper Musso plays the ball, Pubill takes it in his hands and places it in the corner of the small box / Photo: capture
Barcelona publicly contested several decisions by Istvan Kovacs, but the complaint to UEFA focused only on the 54th minute phase when goalkeeper Musso put the ball back into play, passed to Pubill, who touched the ball with his hand before taking a free kick.
At that stage, Kovacs did not give a penalty, and the VAR booth did not intervene. German Christian Dingert and Portuguese Tiago Martins handled the video refereeing.
The Barcelona officials considered that the ball was in play, and Pubill's intervention should have been sanctioned with a red card and the kick from 11 meters.
At the declarative level, the Catalans also contested Kovacs' decision to remove Pau Cubarsi, but not in the official request.
This kind of approach usually has no real consequences, but is the clubs' way of expressing their displeasure with the referee. In parallel, UEFA evaluates each referee through an internal system. At this game, the observer was Stefano Podeschi, from San Marino. He wrote a report on Kovacs.
