Luis Enrique has opened up about Barcelona's decision to snub The Best awards gala organized by FIFA on Monday Jan 9, 2017. The club's players were conspicuously absent as their rival Cristiano Ronaldo was announced the first ever winner of the historic award.
Prior to the event, Barcelona released a statement claiming that the club was stepping up its preparations for the Copa del Rey return leg tie against Athletic Bibao thus the decision to snub the award, but Luis Enrique's revelations cast doubts over the explanation provided by the club. Enrique revealed that Barca players are the ones who decided to boycott the award and that he had no other choice but to respect their decision. Spanish publication AS quotes him as saying:
''The decision to go to the awards or not is their personal choice and, as their coach, I can only support them."
The Barcelona fraternity have been a frustrated lot lately thanks to officiating blunders back in Spain. In their last La Liga match (against Villarreal) at Estadio Madrigal, the visitors bitterly complained about poor officiating. Star defender Gerard Pique was taped yelling at La Liga boss Javier Tebas, who is a well-known Real Madrid fan. Prior to the league match, had Pique also criticized the level of officiating when Los Blaugrana went down 2-1 to Bilbao in the first leg of their Copa del Rey tie. Could this be the beginning of a cold war between the Spanish giants?
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