Barcelona president Joan Laporta has condemned the refereeing in his club's Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid as a 'disgrace' and 'intolerable'. The club plans to file another complaint with UEFA after their initial protest was rejected. Laporta highlighted several disputed decisions across both legs of the tie.
Barcelona were eliminated from the Champions League after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Atletico Madrid. They suffered a 2-0 defeat in the first leg before winning 2-1 at the Metropolitano in the second leg on Tuesday night. The Catalans had protested the first-leg officiating to UEFA, citing an incident involving Atletico defender Marc Pubill that they believed warranted a red card and a penalty, but UEFA deemed the complaint inadmissible. Another formal complaint is now in preparation, interim president Rafa Yuste told Laporta. Joan Laporta, set to reclaim the presidency on July 1, expressed his frustration on Tuesday. 'First of all, I want to congratulate our opponents, but yesterday’s refereeing, both by the referee and VAR, was a disgrace. What they did to us is intolerable,' he said. He criticized the first leg for missing a clear penalty and wrongly sending off a Barcelona player, and the second leg for Eric Garcia's red card—claiming Jules Koundé could have reached the ball—a disallowed Ferran Torres goal, and unpunished fouls on Dani Olmo and Fermín López. Laporta also targeted UEFA directly. 'We filed a complaint, and the response was that it wasn’t acceptable. What Barça is doing is asking for explanations as to why the complaint wasn’t acceptable,' he said. 'To say that referees favour Barça is shameless. They only have to look at this Champions League tie.' Winger Raphinha, sidelined by injury, called the tie 'stolen' from Barcelona, adding to criticisms of referee Clement Turpin.
