Barcelona president Joan Laporta has this evening provided his take on the widely-discussed refereeing controversy stemming from Real Madrid’s meeting with Almería on Sunday.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Real, of course, have found themselves centre stage in the Spanish and European headlines alike over the course of the last 24 hours.
This comes after Los Blancos were the beneficiaries of a series of controversial decisions, en route to a last-gasp comeback victory over bottom-of-the-table Almería.
So one-sided did the officiating appear, in fact, that Almería defender Marc Pubill, during a post-match interview, pointed towards corruption being at play:
And Pubill was not the only one, either.
On the back of Barcelona’s hard-fought downing of Real Betis on Sunday, Xavi Hernández also hinted at his side’s El Clásico rivals being favoured by officials on a consistent basis, in explaining:
“If we speak they will sanction us, but everyone has seen what happened at the Santiago Bernabéu with Real Madrid and the refereeing. I already said in Getafe that there were things that did not fit and it is going to be very difficult to win this league.”
And, as alluded to above, a full day later, Xavi has received the backing of Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
Facing the media a short time ago, Spanish patron Laporta was asked for his take on what unfolded over the 100+ minutes in Madrid on Sunday.
And the Blaugrana chief was in no mood to mince words, bluntly asserting that:
“What happened yesterday at the Bernabéu was shameful.”
Conor Laird | GSFN
