Well, seeing this I thought two things: 1: I saw a video (which I think was from the recent national camp) where the instructor described “selfishness.” On a quick play where you need to catch up or create an angle, your urgency sometimes justifies not giving players the “right of way.” At times you have to be selfish to be sure you are in position. I feel this ref was trying hard to do that, and doing so will inevitably lead to more contact between ref and player. Should he have taken the long way around? 2: referees are human. He apparently felt that he was tripped or pushed down deliberately. It is very very difficult to not “bow up” physically when tripped. Do we not see this in almost every game? I’m not justifying the ref- he will get his due sanction- but I cannot say that I would be totally composed if I were digging deep in stoppage time to chase a quick counter and I was taken down by a player.
I read a french translation on reddit about it. I don't have the source readily available, sorry. From my viewing of the incident, the only "dissenting" that appears happens after the card was given. When the referee kicked the player, the player puts his hands backwards and backs up and appears to say something along the lines of "referee, it was not my fault it was an accident." There was also another article with the referees response to the incident, which sounds like a half-assed excuse to me, but I will let you be the judge of it. Here's the quote: "When I collided with Diego Carlos, I felt a sharp pain in an area where I had suffered a recent injury. In a terrible reflex, I stretched out my leg to the player. This clumsy gesture was inappropriate." I agree that if a player trips a referee, it is a straight red. The whole situation was just completely mismanaged from my perspective. The restart was done correctly, given with what the referee perceived to have happened (with a DFK).
I'm sure many of us were tripped on taken down by a player in the middle of play. I know I have and the 3 times that it has happened to me, the players were apologetic as was I. Remember this is their game and we are just spectators that happen to have the best seat in the house, and sometimes we even get paid for it This referee was definitely in the wrong for doing what he did. Was he dealing this a recent injury as claimed or was there something else, we just don't know. Should he be punished, absolutely. Should he be blacklisted never to referee at this level again, I think that would be overreaction.
It doesn't make it absolutely clear that the yellow was for the trip but the following quote from the referee (translated from his original statement to Agence France Presse) might be seen to imply it: https://talksport.com/football/ligue-1-referee-sorry-kicking-nantes-defender-and-says-red-card-was-wrong-180115268636#bSiKy2ZoXGZo7LTD.99 The original AFP article is here: https://www.afp.com/fr/infos/1403/n...y-chapron-sexcuse-aupres-du-joueur-doc-wp5ni5