Piqué blasts "roulette" refereeing, claims anti-Barça bias
The defender was left unhappy by the referee's decision not to award Barcelona two penalties in the loss to Athletic Bilbao, and also pointed the finger at TVE for supposed disparaging coverage. Barcelona-Alaves live
Gerard Pique criticised referee Fernandez Borbalan following Barcelona’s 2-1 loss away to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey on Thursday, insisting that the Catalan side should have been awarded two penalties.
Pique also suggested that the Basques only won the game through fouling. Athletic finished the game with just nine players on the field after having two men sent off.
"We already know how this works"
"The penalty to Neymar was very clear and the one with Gorka [Iraizoz] on me, too, but we already know how this works," Pique told TV cameras after the match.
"We already saw what happened yesterday with Sevilla against Madrid... from kick-off to the last minutes. We want to play football and not roulette, which is what these referees cause," added the Barcelona centre-back, referring to the controversial penalty awarded to Real Madrid on Wednesday night.
Pique questions TVE impartiality
Not long after full time at San Mames, Pique also appeared to question the impartiality of TVE, Spain's state-owned public-service broadcaster, tweeting screenshots of two polls published by the station's own Twitter account.
"A couple of questions from public-service television in less than a month," Pique wrote. "Congratulations @EstadioTVE."
One TVE poll asked whether Barca had disrespected Hercules after fielding a weakened side in a Copa del Rey match in December, while the other invited supporters to vote on which team the referee in the Athletic match had harmed most with his decisions.