Manchester City lost 2-0 to Barcelona in the home leg of their tie for a quarter final place in the Champions League. At the end of the game, the City manager, Manuel Pellegrini confronted the referee to complain. No doubt he will be called to account for his outburst by Uefa.
Pellegrini claims that the foul committed by Martin Demichelis on Lionel Messi was outside the box and should not have resulted in Demichelis being sent off nor should a penalty have been awarded.
Pellegrini went on to say that the referee was favouring Barcelona because of mistakes he made in 2012 when Barça faced AC Milan in a quarter final match. He added that these sort of games need more experienced referees and not ones from Sweden.
We understand the frustration that managers feel when their team loses an important game, especially when refereeing decisions may have contributed to that loss. However, that does not excuse the sort of attack that Pellegrini made on Jonas Eriksson.
I believe the only reason that managers make such vociferous criticisms is to try and warn off other refs from making decisions against them. It is blatant intimidation and ought to be stamped out.
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