The referee's handling of the Malta vs Scotland last night was "scandalous", according to a Malta FA top official, amid mounting criticism and jibes at the Ukrainian's handling of the match. Pietro Ghedin's team went down 5-1 in the opening qualifier of the 2018 World Cup. The scoreline was 1-1 at the end of the first half and Malta had been putting up a creditable performance even when Scotland went ahead early in the second half. But the Malta team unraveled following a controversial penalty and sending off in which Maltese defender Jonathan Caruana is not seen to make any contact with the Scottish striker. The team did well in the first half but fell apart in the second owing to a number of factors, including repeated mistakes by the match officials, said Bjorn Vassallo, secretary of the Malta Football Association. He said he did not let emotion take over, nor did he seek excuses, but the match control in the second half was worse than being hard on Malta, it was "scandalous". The penalty decision by Ukrainian referee Yevhen Aranovski was universally criticised. The referee's decision cannot be reversed but sources said that once the official observer files his report and...
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