In an official statement, FC Barcelona have announced that they have filed another complaint with UEFA over the controversial refereeing in their Champions League quarter-final tie against Atletico Madrid.
During the first leg, there were several controversial calls made by referee Istvan Kovacs, none more so than the decision not to award a penalty for a blatant handball by Marc Pubill.
There were similar controversial moments in the second leg this week as well, the red card shown to Eric Garcia being a major grievance, while the non-awarding of a penalty on Dani Olmo also raised eyebrows.
Barcelona had already filed a complaint after the first leg, which was deemed inadmissible by UEFA. As such, they have once again approached the governing body with another official complaint.
“FC Barcelona has filed a complaint with UEFA regarding the refereeing performance in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie against Atletico Madrid,” the statement read.
“The Club believes that, throughout the two matches of the tie, several refereeing decisions were made that did not comply with the Laws of the Game , resulting from an incorrect application of the regulations and a lack of adequate intervention by the VAR system in clearly significant actions.”
Continuing, the club statement added: “According to FC Barcelona, the accumulation of these errors has had a direct impact on the development of the matches and on the final result of the tie, resulting in a significant sporting and economic loss for the Entity.”
Asking for improvement on the refereeing aspect, Barcelona concluded: “Through this claim, the Club reiterates the requests made to UEFA previously and, at the same time, offers to collaborate with UEFA with the aim of improving the refereeing system in order to guarantee a more rigorous, fair and transparent application of the Laws of the Game.”
