Gasperini: 'This refereeing is football suicide'

Gian Piero Gasperini railed against refereeing in general after Atalanta went down to 10 against Real Madrid. ‘They’re trying to remove any contact, that’s suicide for the sport.’

The coach was understandably furious following a 1-0 home defeat in the Champions League Round of 16, as Remo Freuler was shown a straight red card after just 17 minutes.

It was ruled a clear scoring opportunity, even though Ferland Mendy seemed to be going wide and preparing for a cross.

“The game was ruined. Last season, after absolute chaos, the handball rule was sorted out. Now we have the temptation to remove any form of contact in football and that is suicide for the sport,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.

“I just got banned for saying something in Serie A, if I say something now then UEFA will ban me for a month. But this is football suicide. We cannot have referees who never played the game and don’t know the difference between a challenge and a foul.

“If they can’t tell the difference, then they ought to go and get a different job, frankly. They should get people who played football to referee instead.

“Referees also have video replays now, they have everything needed to judge, and yet even with replays they get it wrong.

“You wait so long for this event and then it gets ruined. We might’ve lost anyway, I am not complaining about the result, but we at least could’ve played our game."

Red card for Atalanta! A nightmare start!Remo Freuler is sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity after tangling with Real Madrid's Ferland Mendy on the edge of his own penalty area! pic.twitter.com/eVdMS1bYbB