Valencia’s Director General Javier Solis has expressed his disgust and frustration with the refereeing performance on Sunday night, after Los Che felt aggrieved on a number of occasions.
During the opening goal, Sevilla’s Loic Bade was accused of elbowing Yunus Musah, a foul that was not given. Valencia were then denied a penalty for handball, before Ilaix Moriba was sent off late on.
Speaking to DAZN Espana, Solis was furious with what he referred to as a robbery.
“We leave absolutely disgusted, absolutely pissed off. We have experienced a real disgrace today with the refereeing. Not only the penalty that they swiped from us. It has been a robbery, also, in slow motion, with the VAR being involved, the referee has gone to see it and with all the arrogance in the world he has explained to our captain how the hand was. We are sick of it. It smells really bad. Not only the second action to get back into the game, but also the first. There is also a trip on Yunus. Today the referee when he sees the images must have a hard time sleeping. It’s a disgrace written in capital letters.”
El @valenciacf ESTALLA en el micrófono de #DAZN de @IrenePallardo 🔥🔥🔥🔥
"Hemos vivido una auténtica vergüenza con el arbitraje. Ha sido un ROBO a cámara lenta"
"El fútbol huele MUY MAL"#LaLigaEnDAZN ⚽ pic.twitter.com/3yT1vTJpGW
— DAZN España (@DAZN_ES) April 16, 2023
He continued on, naming an egregious amount of errors he believes Los Che have suffered from.
“We are absolutely upset and disgusted. We do not deserve the refereeing that we are suffering this season. I think I count 17 serious VAR errors. The team is down and you can’t just criticise the referees, but what we’ve seen on the field today is a real shame, reviewing the images, the referee’s position, those are hand balls. I’m going to talk about robbery, it’s a genuine robbery.”
Solis was also not interested in Valencia releasing an official statement on the matter either.
“More than a statement, we are now talking. This is not about a war of statements, all the clubs are suffering from the level of refereeing in this country. I don’t think we’re going into a war over who makes the toughest statement, but it’s flagrant and I must hold myself back,” he remarked, with little irony.
Solis’ rant comes amid rising pressure on referees in Spain for their card-happy performances this season, with the number of red cards eclipsing the totals of the Bundesliga, Serie A and the Premier League put together.
There is a suggestion that the clubs will attempt for large reforms this summer, with the refereeing body potentially becoming independent from the Spanish Football Federation. La Liga have also been fanning the flames of these tensions, releasing a video criticising the refereeing of late.
𝐄𝐒 🇪🇸 l 🟥Los jugadores de LaLiga no son más agresivos, sino que el arbitraje español ha modificado su baremo de expulsiones, disparándose la media por partido esta temporada, tanto en LaLiga como en partidos de competiciones europeas arbitrados por españoles.
Vídeo⬇️ pic.twitter.com/zFMY9DiGh4
— LaLiga Corporativo (@LaLigaCorp) April 16, 2023
