Freixa: “We want the rules of the game"

The spokesman outlined the Club’s position on the statements made by Sánchez Arminio when he said that the Technical Referee Committee intends to report Gerard Piqué.

Toni Freixa, Board of Directors spokesman, outlined FC Barcelona’s position on the declarations made by the President of the Technical Referee Committee, Victoriano Sánchez Arminio, where he said that the Committee would report Gerard Piqué for his statements after Barça’s League match this weekend. Freixa, who gave a press conference after meeting with President Sandro Rosell, said that “our players and coaching staff have always behaved impeccably. Our players, with FC Barcelona and the national team, have been impeccable.” The spokesman petitioned that the Club’s players “deserve impeccable treatment.”

One of FC Barcelona’s commitments is to “not argue about the job referees have,” said Freixa. However, the spokesman said that “this year we aren’t having much luck [with them],” and now it appears, to Mr. Rosell, that things “are looking worse.” Freixa said that “we aren’t losing faith and we hope that we end up with no arguments in regards to the way we currently feel.”

On the statements made by Sánchez Arminio, Freixa considers that the statements are “a display to the media, an opportunistic action that raises improper comparisons in a top class competition like the Spanish League.” The spokesman also said that Piqué told the referee how he felt after the match; that exchange didn’t make it into the referee’s post-match report. Therefore, Mr. Arminio’s words “position the player in the middle of an underserved controversy.”

FC Barcelona has decided to undertake a series of actions to address the current situation. Firstly, Freixa said that “we have sent a letter to the Real Federación Español de Fútbol (RFEF) where we formally request that they inform us on the conditions and criteria that the Referee Committee follows when they report [a case] to the Competition Committee.” In the letter, Freixa said that FC Barcelona “wants to know what conditions and criteria are applied by the Competition Committee [when the Committee] acts in a disciplinary manner.” In short, “we want to know what the rules of the game are,” said Freixa.

FC Barcelona has also requested that “the composition of the Competition Committee be reviewed, it must be more representative instead of the [current] unilateral composition.”

The Club will not attend tomorrow's RFEF meeting

FC Barcelona will not attend tomorrow’s Cup Final venue meeting chaired by the RFEF, “to show our disappointment.” Freixa said that in previous meetings to choose a venue for the final that “our objective arguments were not given value. We’ll leave it in the RFEF’s hand to pick a final venue.”

The Club will appeal Piqué's card

The Club also decided to appeal the red card shown to Gerard Piqué in the match against Sporting Gijón. (via FCBarcelona.com)