Xavi fumes at 'shameful' refereeing as Barcelona held by Getafe
- Barcelona were held to a 0-0 draw with Getafe in their first game of the season
- Both Raphinha and Jaime Mata were shown red cards in an ill-tempered affair
- Xavi was also sent off for protesting a number of controversial decisions
By Tom Gott
Barcelona manager Xavi has claimed it is a "shame" that fans of La Liga football were forced to watch the officiating in his side's 0-0 draw with Getafe on Sunday evening.
Across 106 minutes of action, the referee called 32 fouls, dished out ten yellow cards and showed three red cards to Getafe's Jaime Mata, Barcelona's Raphinha and Xavi himself.
To compound Barcelona's misery, a last-minute call for a penalty which appeared certain to be given was rejected by the VAR, who spotted a handball from Gavi in the build-up.
Kicking things off after the game in an interview with DAZN (via AS), Xavi explained the circumstances of his own red card.
"I told [the referee] that they were committing a lot of fouls and we weren't," Xavi said. "That's why he sent me off.
"The other day we had a meeting with the referees and the first change in the rule they told us was that they would understand the coaches more. Not that my sending off matters. What happened on the pitch matters. We tried anyway, but we couldn't. I think we deserved to win, but it wasn't enough. A shame. The responsibility lies with the referee. He doesn't control the game and it gets out of hand."
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He added: "The referee is the one who allows it, nobody else. I think they are allowing too much, and if what La Liga sells is going poorly, then we are not selling a good product. I didn't see [Gavi's] hand anywhere. It's made up. That's what they said, that if it wasn't clear, they wouldn't whistle it. I didn't like the meeting the other day and today I didn't like it either."
With his tensions evidently rising, Xavi used his post-match press conference to blast the "shameful" football that he believed the referees had allowed.
"For me, the hand is invented. The hand is invented. One of the points [from the meeting] was that [referees] understood the coaches, but they didn't understand me," he explained. "The second was that handballs had to be clear and this was not. I already got a bad feeling from the meeting. VAR is a fantastic tool but it is not used well. It's a shame.
"The responsibility lies with the referee. The limits are set by the referee. [The red card for] Raphinha was wrong because a lot had happened before. There is evidence. That is my feeling and my opinion.
"The controversy is very clear. The product is a shame. With this, it would be normal that people do not want to watch football. This has not been a game.
"We are upset, it has been a real injustice. For me, it's an absolute shame. It has been a very difficult game to play."
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