Juve furious with 'unacceptable' refereeing

الأحد، 28 أكتوبر 2007 - 14:09

كتب : Omar AbdelAziz

Juventus chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli sounded his frustration by the refereeing decisions that, according to him, cost his side a 3-1 Serie A defeat at Napoli on Saturday.

Referee Mauro Bergonzi awarded the home side two controversial second-half penalties, converted by Maurizio Domizzi to round off the victory.

"We don't believe they have it in for us, or that someone is trying to damage us, but what happened tonight is absolutely unacceptable," Cobolli told Sky TV after the game.

"Even Napoli supporters who were near me on the stands realized those penalties shouldn’t have been given. I ask myself how the referee wasn't able to see this, and why his assistants didn't help him out in his decisions."

The Juve president has fears that the infamous match-fixing scandal, which dumped Juve to Serie B in 2006, could be a reason to officials for being against his side.

"We want to be judged only by what happens on the pitch. We were relegated to Serie B and now we're back, we paid our dues; we can't be treated like this," he added.

"No-one's ever going to give us back these two points. I hope someone in high places noticed what happened here because referees that do our matches need to be more cool-headed and impartial."

Scandalous

Despite being ordered not to comment after the game, some Juve players slammed the referee's performance as well.

"When these things happen, it is quite simply a scandal," David Trezeguet told reporters on his way out of the pitch.

"It’s absolutely scandalous," added defender Nicola Legrottaglie and midfielder Raffaele Palladino.

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