Flick: Players and coaches must protect LaLiga referees

Hansi Flick insists LaLiga referees must be protected by players and coaches after Jose Munuera Montero was vilified for showing Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham a red card.

Montero was forced to close his Instagram account after receiving tens of thousands of comments, including insults and death threats, after he showed Bellingham a red card for directing foul language towards him during Madrid's draw with Osasuna last week.

Bellingham was handed a two-match suspension despite saying the referee had misunderstood him as he was talking to himself in English.

The incident has led to a fierce debate over the treatment of referees in Spain, and Flick believes everyone connected with LaLiga must do more to protect officials.

"It's very important to have the referees and, at the moment, what they are doing here in Spain with them [referees] is unbelievable. You have to think about their families also," Flick said ahead of Barca's trip to Las Palmas on Saturday.

"Everyone makes mistakes ... I think it's the responsibility of the coaches and also of the players to protect them.

"Now we have the VAR, and we have to trust in them. The federation has to show how strong it is. This is very important ... We have to change a little bit these things because they [referees] are human."

Barcelona currently top LaLiga, level on 51 points with second-place Madrid, and a point ahead of Atletico Madrid in third.

Barcelona are unbeaten in their last nine away games in all competitions (W6 D3), scoring an average of 3.44 goals per game (31 goals on aggregate).

They have not gone 10 games or more without losing away from home since September 2022, when they went 15 games between January and September 2022 (W12 D3).

However, Las Palmas are looking to do the league double over Barcelona for the first time in the top flight, having won the reverse fixture 2-1 back in November 2024.

Barca also host Atletico in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final on Tuesday, and Flick said he might rotate his players when they face relegation-threatened Las Palmas, who are in 17th place, level on 23 points with third-bottom Valencia.

"We have one more training session today, and we'll decide later [about resting players]. We always focus on the next game, but we also have to think about Atletico. The important game is Las Palmas," he said.

"The team is at a good physical level, but we also have to think about the next games. There is the international break [next month] and our players are also playing ... We have to know what the players can give us."