Terje Hauge Responds to Arsenal Criticism

After Thierry Henry and Arsene Wenger accused him of having taken some really bad decisions during the UEFA Champions League final, Terje Hauge - the Norwegian referee from Stade de France - felt the need to explain himself before the public eye, less than 24 hours after the big clash.

Having felt very offended by the accusations towards him, Hauge brought some light into his refereeing on Stade de France, including the elimination of goalkeeper Jens Lehman and allowing the equalizer for Barca.

"We had full control of the match and all in all I'm quite happy with my performance. The match started well, then obviously there was the incident with the sending-off. At this point I would have liked to have taken a few more seconds before I made my decision. The ideal thing would have been to wait a few seconds. If I'd done that, I could have given the goal and eventually given a yellow card. Of course everyone wants a goal, so this was a key situation".

He also said that a decisive factor for giving the red card was the fact that one of his assistants agreed with his call. "It was obviously a big game for Arsenal, and to lose is a huge disappointment. So I can understand their frustration. But we'll have to give it a few days so we can discuss this more sensibly", concluded the Norwegian.

UEFA also insisted that Hauge's refereeing had nothing to do with the final score and that Arsenal should not blame him for their failure: "Hauge's performances have been very good all year round. If he isn't in the squad for the World Cup, that doesn't make him a bad referee".