Atletico Madrid chief questions ‘integrity’ of LaLiga
Atletico Madrid chief executive Miguel Angel Gil has accused Real Madrid of pressurising officials and questioned the “integrity” of LaLiga after Angel Correa was sent off in Saturday’s derby.
Correa was shown a straight red card midway through the second half of a 1-1 draw between the Madrid rivals at the Santiago Bernabeu, following a seemingly innocuous push on Antonio Rudiger.
Atletico have now had a man sent off in all three meetings with Madrid this season, with Correa following in the footsteps of Mario Hermoso and Stefan Savic.
While Diego Simeone’s men made light of their numerical disadvantage to deal a blow to Madrid’s title hopes, the decision left a sour taste for Gil Marin.
“I said it a few weeks ago and I stand by it, word for word,” he said in a statement on the club’s website. “Yesterday was more of the same, it’s regrettable!
“We always suffer this kind of behaviour against this team because of the permanent pressure on the refereeing staff.
“After the last derby I decided to share my opinion publicly and, just for that, I received a lot of criticism and disqualifications from different groups.
“However, from many groups I received private expressions of support. I especially liked those that came from media professionals and former referees, because they understood better than anyone else my denunciation of a system that is not fair and that tries to influence the decisions of people who should be impartial judges.
“We cannot normalise what is abnormal. I refuse to get used to these situations, even though they have unfortunately become a habit over the years. We are fed up with it.
“The integrity of the competition cannot be in doubt.”
