El Clasico: Barcelona star slams 'tiresome' Mourinho over constant referee criticism

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Jose Mourinho has been on the warpath with La Liga in the lead-up to the Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona this weekend.

Unfortunately, a lot of the focus will be on referee José Hernández Hernández due to the criticism aimed at officials this season by Mourinho, as well as Real Madrid as a whole.

In September, Atletico Madrid secured a 2-1 victory in the derby at the Wanda Metropolitano, with Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen shown an early red card. However, Mourinho believed the home side should also have finished the match with nine players, arguing that two Atletico players deserved to be sent off.

Replays appeared to support his complaints over Kang-in Lee’s challenge on Federico Valverde, although Cristian Romero’s 50-50 tackle on Jude Bellingham was more open to interpretation. Mourinho brought printed images of both incidents to his post-match press conference, presenting them to the media while largely avoiding discussion of his own team’s performance.

Instead, the Portuguese manager turned his attention to the standard of officiating in Spain, delivering a typically outspoken criticism of the country’s referees.

Then came Vinicius Junior's four-match suspension after pulling Villarreal defender Nathan Saliba by the hair. He was given a two-match ban for the offence and a further two-match ban for confronting the official.

The announcement of his ban came just two hours before Real Madrid were set to face Roma in the Champions League.

"Do you think it's normal that a player from a Spanish team, who has to play a match that is also important for Spanish football, that two hours before the match a player knows he's been given a four-match suspension?" Mourinho questioned after Madrid defeated Roma 4-3.

"Couldn't they do it tomorrow morning? Do we have to come by bus and almost arrive at the stadium when we find out Vinicius has a four-match suspension? They do things shamelessly now. The cat is out of the bag now. Two hours before the match, a player must know he has a four-match suspension. A Spanish team that has earned three points for Spanish football, for the rankings, for the prestige of Spanish football. You want to kill a player two hours before the match? It doesn't seem normal to me."

Fermin Lopez has added fuel to the fire ahead of the Clasico by slamming Mourinho's "tiresome" rhetoric about refereeing standards.

"We don't get involved in the referee controversy. They're happy to fuel it. We're tired of it," Lopez said, as quoted by Sport.

"His rhetoric about referees and controversy is getting tiresome. We're doing things right, winning, and conveying values ​​that represent Barca. We have to keep going in this direction."

Barcelona suffered their first defeat of the season on Tuesday when they lost against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. They have a perfect La Liga record of nine wins out of nine and 39 goals scored, while Madrid are six points behind in third.