Marseille president Pablo Longoria faces probably punishment from the French footballing authorities after an outburst on Saturday through which he claimed his membership have been the victims of “corruption” following a 3-0 Ligue 1 loss to Auxerre.
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“This is real corruption,” Spaniard Longoria railed after the match on the Stade de l’Abbe-Deschamps, through which he and different Marseille officers felt their crew have been unfairly handled by the referee.
Marseille, who lie second in Ligue 1, have been already trailing 1-0 in Burgundy after they had a penalty declare dismissed by referee Jeremy Stinat simply earlier than half-time.
The guests then had Canadian defender Derek Cornelius despatched off for a second yellow card shortly after the hour mark, earlier than conceding two additional objectives late on to stoop to a disappointing defeat.
It was not simply Longoria, with Fabrizio Ravanelli, the Italian former Marseille striker now working in an advisory position for the membership, labelling the choices “scandalous”.
“All of France saw that Stinat’s decisions were a nonsense. It was scandalous refereeing,” Ravanelli informed journalists.
“He gave a red card for an unacceptable second yellow card. He played the ball,” Ravanelli added of Cornelius, though the defender clearly caught Auxerre’s Hamed Junior Traore within the torso along with his knee on the observe by way of.
“We are not accepting this anymore. We ask for respect and fair refereeing.”
French Soccer Federation chief Philippe Diallo hit again on the feedback made by Longoria and Ravanelli in an announcement on Sunday.
“I strongly condemn the comments made by Marseille directors about French refereeing in general,” mentioned Diallo, with the membership having already protested towards the appointment of Stinat because the match whistler forward of the sport in Auxerre.
“To question the integrity of our officials is defamatory, unacceptable and reprehensible,” Diallo added, saying that the feedback “seriously damage the image of our league”.
Broadcaster DAZN reported on Sunday that Stinat had been the sufferer of “an intrusion into his home” and that his vehicles had been vandalised.
Marseille had been sad at Stinat’s appointment because the referee had been the fourth official of their French Cup defeat by Lille final month, after which their sporting director Medhi Benatia was handed a three-month suspension for incidents on the touchline.
“No Mr. Longoria, French referees are not corrupt! Losing a match does not justify calling into question the integrity of French referees,” mentioned SAFE, France’s refereeing union, in an announcement.
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