Barcelona boss disputes Gerard Pique’s claim of dishonest referees

A few days ago, the outspoken Gerard Pique gave an interview where he thrashed the La Liga referees for supporting Real Madrid and giving more decisions their way. This created quite a bit of controversy but Barcelona coach, Ronald Koeman, has publicly defended the referees of La Liga saying that he thinks most of them are fair in their judgements and that he could see no biases towards Madrid.

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The 34-year-old centre-back has always been very vocal throughout his career and has taken a lot of jabs at Madrid. This is not the first time that he has insinuated that the referees have a part to play with Real Madrid’s victory. In the recent interview with Post United, he once again blatantly blamed the referees for supporting the Blancos. He said in the interview,

"“The other day a former referee said that 85 percent of the referees are from Madrid, How are they not going to whistle in favour of Madrid? Even unconsciously, how are they not going to give more for one side than the other?”Source Goal"

However, Koeman decided to take the side of the officials by saying that he thinks that the referees are doing their job well although there are some mistakes, but they are to be expected. In a pre-match conference, the Dutch manager took his stance against his player and put forth his own opinions. He said,

"“I always think that the attitudes of the referees are honest. They give what they see and are not in favour of any team.”Source Goal"

He went on to explain that Pique’s opinions are his alone and they do not represent the opinion of the entire club. He said that he cannot comment on the other season but this season, the referees have been fair and unbiased in nature.

Koeman also said that although there have been some unfair decisions against Barca, it is not the fault of the referees and the decision also comes for the VAR.

Finally, he talked about the improvement of Antoine Griezmann and their title chances. He said that he is very happy about the form of the French international and that he never doubted the striker. On the other hand, however, he is not sure about their title chances as there is already such a big gap between the team but he is still happy with the club’s overall improvement.

Do you agree with Pique or Koeman?