Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, the mayor of Madrid, has come out with a scathing review of the officiating during Atlético Madrid’s Champions League semifinal defeat to Arsenal.
Atleti were beaten 1-0 at the Emirates in the second leg of the semifinal, falling 2-1 on aggregate in a game that ended with ugly scenes.
Diego Simeone got into a heated exchange with Andrea Berta on the touchline, with the two having to be pulled apart, while Kepa Arrizabalaga booted the ball away which caused further tension.
In the end though, Bukayo Saka’s goal shortly before half time was enough to send Arsenal into their first final in 20 years and it was another case of being the nearly men for Atlético.
But, Martinez-Almeida was extremely critical of UEFA and the officials.
He said: “What I’m saying is that when I saw the draw, I thought we’d been drawn against Arsenal, but I was wrong — we ended up playing against UEFA.
“And UEFA has made it clear that they didn’t want Atlético Madrid to reach the Champions League final.
“It’s inexplicable that they would appoint a German referee when Spain and Germany are battling it out for fifth place in the Champions League.
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“Who, apart from UEFA, would think of appointing a German referee as both the main referee and the VAR official?
“And yesterday there were incidents that weren’t down to the referee being good or bad, but, in my opinion, to a premeditated plan to disadvantage Atlético de Madrid.”
That battle for fifth place that Martinez-Almeida mentions is the extra Champions League spot, handed to the two nations with the highest UEFA co-efficient.
The Premier League has already guaranteed one of those and LaLiga and the Bundesliga are fighting out for the other spot.
Madrid’s mayor did not stop there though when criticizing UEFA, insisting that Atleti fans are that much prouder of their team for having come so close to defeating not just Arsenal but UEFA itself.
“That’s why I think we Atlético fans are proud of our team because they competed not against Arsenal, but against UEFA,” he added.
“You can beat Arsenal over 180 minutes, but you’re not going to beat UEFA.
“UEFA set the whole machine in motion to ensure that Atlético Madrid didn’t get through that match yesterday and the referee was the one who carried out that will.
“There’s an ulterior motive, in my opinion. I repeat, we could have beaten Arsenal, but we couldn’t beat UEFA and it was impossible to do so — we drew UEFA, not Arsenal, in the draw to go to Budapest.”
