It’s a scandal – Barcelona president Laporta lashed out at the referee after the weekend controversy
Barcelona president Joan Laporta criticized the standard of officiating during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Getafe, describing the decision not to award his side a late penalty as a “scandal”.
Barca were left fuming when match official Pablo Gonzalez Fuertes and VAR Francisco Jose Hernandez Maeso failed to award a spot-kick after Christantus Uche appeared to have dragged Jules Kounde to the floor with eight minutes remaining.
French defender Kounde had earlier opened the scoring for Barca, but Mauro Arambarri’s equalizer meant Hansi Flick’s men were denied a crucial victory.
Speaking this morning, Laporta didn’t hold back when asked for his assessment. He said: “The trial at Getafe was disgraceful. Not calling that penalty to Koundé is a scandal. A real scandal.”
💥 “El ARBITRAJE en GETAFE fue una VERGÜENZA”.
🔥 Brutal ‘RAJADA’ de LAPORTA por el penalty no pitado a Koundé.
📹 @marccnunezz pic.twitter.com/WC1qWHqDpC
— El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) January 20, 2025
Madrid widens the gap between Clasico rivals
Real Madrid’s 4-1 win over Las Palmas yesterday means Barca are third in the league table, seven points behind the European champions and five behind Atletico Madrid.
Accusations of bias are not uncommon in Spain, particularly from Barcelona given Madrid’s traditional role as the country’s capital and power base.
After the game, Flick focused more on the title race and insisted there was still time for his team to make up ground.
The German said: “Winning the league is the most difficult thing. But it’s not over yet, there are more games to play. We will fight until the end. Today we got an extra point, but we lost two points. However, we have to look forward and do better next time.”
Barca’s bad league streak continues
Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final last weekend but have won just one of their last eight league games, their worst run in 17 years.
Flick added: “I’m not worried. I am aware of the situation, I know that we dropped a lot of points in the last games, that is not what we want, but we can do much better. But in the end, you can see that we started the season very well, in this new year, and I’m happy about that.”
