Barcelona's head coach Xavi supported the words of the Catalan club's president Joan Laporta, who had previously stated that Real Madrid was constantly putting pressure on Spanish referees.
"I've said before that I don't like it when referees are put in this position, but they keep doing it every week. The referees are giving conditional signals. I fully share the president's words. This is reality and we cannot fool the people of Barcelona.
I'm not the president of the federation and I'm not the president of the league, but I'm surprised by the barbarism that's happening. It's a problem because it completely changes the competition. Every week, Real Madrid sets up the referees to completely rig La Liga. This is the truth. Even a blind man can see it. As Simeone said: "We are not stupid and we see everything. The media should write about it," Sport.es quoted Xavi as saying.