Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, CEO of Atlético de Madrid, assured this Sunday that “it is not reasonable” that it is “so easy to unfairly throw Ángel Correa out” in the derby against Real Madrid and warned that it is not possible to “normalize what It’s abnormal.”
“I know that there are many people against us denouncing a system that is unfair, but we cannot normalize what is abnormal. I refuse to let us get used to these situations, although unfortunately they have become a habit for years. No I try to find excuses to justify yesterday’s result, I simply show our weariness”, he remarked in statements to the official Atlético media.
“It is not worth insisting more. I already said it a few weeks ago and I confirm it word for word. Yesterday it was more of the same again. It’s unfortunate! We always suffer from this type of action against this team due to the pressure that is constantly exerted on the arbitration group”, he stressed.
“It is not reasonable for a referee to find it so difficult to expel one of his players even though the play is clear (in reference to Dani Ceballos in the previous Copa del Rey duel) and without room for interpretation, as happened in our last match in this same field, and that yesterday it was so easy to unjustly throw out Ángel Correa”, he denounced.
He also highlighted the “great work” of the team in the derby, “with a lot of solidarity, which together with the talent” that his team has made it “very close to winning the game.” “I would have loved to know what would have happened if we had spent the 90 minutes with eleven players. I imagine that like the millions of viewers who followed the game around the world, but unfortunately we were left with the desire,” he added.
And he recalled his statement after the previous derby, on January 26 in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey with a 3-1 defeat after extra time after the expulsion of Stefan Savic. “After the last derby I decided to share my opinion publicly and, just for that, I received a lot of criticism and disqualifications from different stands,” he reviewed.
“However, from many groups I received innumerable private expressions of support. I especially liked those that came from media professionals and former referees, because they better than anyone understood my complaint against a system that is not fair and that tries to influence the decisions of people who should be impartial judges,” he added.
He also spoke about the case of Enríquez Negreira: “The integrity of the competition cannot be in doubt. If the fans come to question the integrity of the game, we are all superfluous.” “In recent weeks we have had access to very relevant information that requires a serious investigation. We have no choice but to get to the bottom of this matter. This is what all the LaLiga clubs have demanded except for two: the club that should be investigated and another one (in reference to Real Madrid)”, he recalled.
“I am convinced that our football deserves that we all work together so that there is not a single doubt or a single suspicion. I plan to continue doing so and I hope that, at least on that, we can all agree,” he said.