Michael Zandberg criticizes controversial referee decision in Israeli Premier League

During the opening match of the 2026/27 Israeli Premier League season between Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Ramat Gan, which ended in a 2-1 victory for Maccabi, referee Omer Biran's decision sparked controversy. In the final minutes, the referee chose to go against the advice of the VAR system and awarded a penalty to Maccabi Haifa, despite it appearing that no foul had been committed on striker Andrej Novakovich. Former player Michael Zandberg, speaking on the KickTalk podcast, described the decision as shameful, stating that if that was a penalty, football should be shut down. Gili Vermouth, another analyst on the show, pointed out that the fact the referee spent six minutes reviewing the footage suggested there was no penalty to begin with. Zandberg added that for a referee to go against the VAR, they must be 100% certain, calling the decision shocking.