Joan Laporta issues statement as Barcelona launch UEFA complaint over UCL exit

Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League to La Liga rivals Atletico Madrid and Catalan club chiefs have been left furious by the officiating in the knockout match

Barcelona president-elect Joan Laporta has slammed the refereeing in Barcelona's Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid and revealed the club are filing a complaint to UEFA. Barcelona secured a 2-1 win at the Metropolitano but it proved not enough for progression as they lost 3-2 on aggregate.

Barcelona filed a complaint following their home first-leg defeat and are set to do so again as a number of refereeing decisions are brought under the microscope. The Catalan club are frustrated that Eric Garcia was shown a red card and that VAR ruled out a Ferran Torres goal that would have put Barca ahead on aggregate in the opening half.

Laporta watched on from the stands in Madrid and has now vented his frustrations from across both ties. "First of all, I want to congratulate Atlético de Madrid," he said.

"But that doesn't excuse yesterday's refereeing, both by the referee and VAR , which was a disgrace. What they did to us is intolerable. In the first leg, they didn't award us a clear penalty and sent off one of our players when he only deserved a yellow card, because Giuliano didn't have the ball under control. The red card hurt us a lot.

"It was a tie where the refereeing decisions hurt us a lot. In the second leg, Eric García wasn't the last man back; Koundé was arriving. The referee initially showed a yellow card, but VAR intervened and overturned it.

"Ferran 's goal was a goal, the penalty on Olmo was blatant, the foul on Fermín was intolerable because his upper lip was completely split open, and then he showed a card to Gavi... The kid was suffering while they were stitching him up, and he didn't even get a card. It's unacceptable."

The lawyer has demanded an explanation for how the decisions came about and confirmed that he had been told by interim-President Rafael Yuste that the club would be taking action after falling short in Europe once again.

"Barca is demanding explanations as to why that complaint was deemed inadmissible, and President Yuste has told me that another complaint will be filed because what happened yesterday is unacceptable," Laporta added. "There have been very damaging decisions for the club's interests, and we want what happened to be made clear."

Laporta also hit at out at anyone suggesting that Barcelona are the beneficiaries of refereeing decisions

He said: "They're scoundrels. To say that... they only have to look at this Champions League tie . Nobody believes it."

Injured Barcelona star Raphinha called the result a robbery due to the officials' management of the match. "For me, this match was a robbery," he said.

"Not just this match but the other one as well. The refereeing was really bad, the decisions [Turpin] makes are unbelievable.

"I don't know how many fouls Atletico made but the referee didn't give them a single yellow card. I really want to understand why they're so afraid that Barcelona will come and win."