Barcelona president Joan Laporta criticized the referee's standard in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Getafe, describing the decision not to award his side a late penalty as a “scandal”.
Barca were furious that VAR Francisco Jose Hernandez Maeso did not award a spot-kick after Cristiantes Uchi dragged Julius Conde to the floor eight minutes from time.
French defender Kounde opened the scoring for Barca earlier, but Mauro Arambarri's leveler denied Hansi Flick's men a crucial win.
This morning, Laporta didn't flinch when asked for his assessment. He said: “The referee at Getafe was a disgrace. The Koundé penalty was not called scandalous. A proper scandal.”
💥 “The refereeing at Getafe is a shame”
🔥 Brutal 'RAJADA' from LAPORTA for the penalty for not calling Koundé.
📹 @marccnunezz pic.twitter.com/WC1qWHqDpC
— El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) January 20 2025
Madrid widen the gap between Clasico rivals.
Real Madrid, who beat Las Palmas 4-1 yesterday, are third in the La Liga table, seven points clear of the European champions and five points behind Atletico Madrid.
Accusations of favoritism in Spain are not uncommon, particularly given Barcelona's traditional role and power base in the country.
After the match, Flick said he was more focused on the championship and that there was still time for his team to catch up.
The German said: “Winning the league is the most difficult. But it's not over yet. There are still games to be played. We will fight to the end. I got more points today but only dropped two points. But we'll have to wait for the next time to be better.”
Barca's poor league run continues.
Barcelona beat 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 know the situation, I know we dropped a lot of points in the last games, That's not what we want. We can do much better. But in the end, You can see in the new year that we started the season really well and I'm happy about that.”