Juventus captain Gigi Buffon defended his comments about referee Michael Oliver. “I had to let that out, even if it damaged my reputation.”
The goalkeeper was sent off for dissent after referee Oliver awarded a controversial last-gasp penalty, sending Real Madrid through to the Champions League semi-final.
Buffon was criticised for his over the top comments, including calling Oliver an “assassin of dreams”, but he broke his silence and doesn’t seem ready to apologise.
“I don’t have to make up for anything, because I am a human being who puts passion, sentiment and anger into what I do,” Buffon told Le Iene television programme.
“You find a way to speak, right or wrong, that at times can seem excessive… but this is me, I am Gigi Buffon. The other night the game had finished an hour and a half ago, so consequently what one expresses at that moment are sentiments and thoughts that are strong, in certain respects raw, but the sentiments of a man who won’t hide behind a veil of hypocrisy and instead throws out what is bubbling in his guts. End of story.
“Right there, you cannot ask a man who lives sport as deeply as I do to be balanced, because even if I expressed these feelings in an exaggerated way, they were still logical thoughts. I’d say them all again. Maybe with a different type of language, one that was more civilised, let’s say. But the content remains and I stand by all of it.
“Even if I was excessive, I said what I thought, that he should not have given that penalty. A referee with more experience would not have blown his whistle and decided not to become the protagonist of the match. He would’ve left it running, turned around and let the two teams fight it out in extra time. Let the pitch do the talking.
“I’m sure Oliver will have a great career in future, but he’s too young to officiate a match like that. The beauty, the imponderable nature of football, means that unfortunately this young man found himself in a situation that was too complex, too garbled and too big for him to deal with.
“So at the end of the day, what I said after the match, I don’t hold any rancour towards Oliver. I’m not even angry with him. It all ended there, but naturally in the heat of the moment one does feel I’m not saying penalised… I felt defrauded. Not defrauded of the result, but of the night. It was a night that can never be repeated.
“We could’ve written a memorable page in the history books of football for Juve, for Italy. Our victory combined with that of Roma (who beat Barcelona 3-0 the night before to wipe out a 4-1 first leg aggregate result) would’ve been just incredible.
“Before being a Juventino, I am an Italian, and I really cared about Italian football doing well. Seeing Roma achieve that amazing comeback, I was so passionately cheering them on. Seeing Juve go to Madrid and come back from 3-0 down… I got emotional. It was just priceless.
“I have lost more important matches than this, but the way it developed and was evolving, it was the most wonderful and exciting match I had ever experienced with Juventus. I think the same is true of my teammates and the fans.”
Even with footage from multiple different angles, the debate continues to rage on whether Medhi Benatia’s nudge on Lucas Vazquez was a penalty.
“It wasn’t a situation where you could say: ‘That is definitely a penalty.’ I’m not saying it wasn’t a penalty, I am saying it was a dubious situation. In a game like that, 20 seconds from the end, a dubious situation is not going to be enough for an experienced referee to transform everything. In my view, an experienced referee would make a different evaluation.
“Give me at least the legitimacy to defend in an exasperated and passionate manner the performance of my teammates, to defend those 5,000 fans who came to Madrid to cheer us on.
“I have to defend my teammates and fans, even in a not very composed fashion, because I feel it. I had to let that out, even if it damaged my reputation.”
吮指原味田鸡
153
if you attend school for referee or read about it there is the a rule in referee school. the last rule it's called COMMON SENSE. TAKE AN example from Howord Webb 2010 world cup final match, if it was Oliver what would the story be? Common sense is the ultimate rule, unfortunately it come with experience 'as a referee '. It was a right call according to the rules but Oliver decided the game when he should have let the pitch decied .
Oliver did not decide the game, Benatia did. Vasquez could have decided the game with a goal, or Buffon could have decided the game with a save, but what happened is Benatia chose to decide the game in the way of foul, who else can you blame? A referee ONLY decides a game when he makes a WRONG call.
Toaadp
112
Those guys who called themselves referees "MUST BE" just any of those teams fans, so why don't we get a neutral body which is nothing out of than the Video Referee (VR) after the world test of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) . Anyone who is against the VAR by saying that it will be time consuming has not gotten ready for the football game to be competitive. Look at this offside before their controversial penalty.
moeiklpuy
75
Thanks for admitting your illogicality. Were you in Real Madrid shirt, how would you have felt if denied what was obviously a penalty irrespective of the timing? Recall that Isco's goal had also been dubiously denied. Personally, I wasn't appalled by what transpired on the pitch. What galled a lot of us what Gigi's uncouth outburst a long time after the match. Time enough for him to have gotten his head back and put everything in perspective. I am aware that quite a relative few will queue up behind Buffon, hailing him headlong. It takes years to build a reputation. To mortgage same for the sake of passion and veiled patriotism is tomfoolery, to say the least. Gigi needs not admit it publicly but a discerning mind knows that he is aching within. He needs to purge himself of that ache and nothing short of an apology, not only to football but, to the world at large will achieve that. It's going to take a lot of courage but he'll be well advised to toe the path of reason.
Toaadp
55
If we are discussing referees decisions, we don't want for any so called team fans to comment. To curtail all of these, there should be a Video Referee after they have tried the video Assistant Referee. Those guys behaviors belittle our Almighty God we believe in and serve. Their decisions are the final, whilst it's understood that we the humans are not perfect, so we always make mistakes. But for them, the referees say that all of their decisions are correct. Coaches and team captains don't question it. It is always said that if the made mistake in handling a particular match, they can be punished. But my question where is, when? During the match to be rebuked or after the match and said victimized team had been put out? The referees are more than God, which made us who believe in our Almighty God to take the football game as demonic and God degrading sport. That's, people can talk back to The Almighty God if the feel somehow about bad things that happened to them without He God punishing them because of the bad words when they are under stress, but if they the referees make any decision against a team without good reason to the team's detriment, no complaining, but if they do, they punished for it. So if those bias are still in charge of the football games, then it's now believed by some of us that it's demonic and degrading the Almighty, and we will stop loving and watching it as our part of recreation.
GiselHernandez
49
Gigi Buffon, you are right, I don't believe you have to apologize for anything, as you well said football is a game of passion, and in the heat of the game sometimes players say and do things a little over the edge, and this particular night represented so much for you and this referee killed all those dreams with a difficult call I most say, but it was an accurate act of diving from Vazquez, it is true that any other experienced referee taking into account the stage of the game, would have decided to play it on. it's sad. I really hope Var comes in as soon as next champions league campaign, so another terrible call like this doesn't happens.