Barcelona star Daniel Alves believes that the media furore over Gerard Pique’s booking against Rayo Vallecano proves there is an agenda against his club.
Pique has been pillored in the media for collecting a yellow card for time wasting during the closing stages of their 4-0 win over Rayo, which rules him out of their clash for Levante.
However, there are suspicions that the World Cup winner got the yellow on purpose so he would not risk missing out on their Dec 10 fixture against Real Madrid.
Alves, however, defended his teammate, saying:
“Once again everyone is looking at Barcelona very closely, everything we do is frowned upon,”
The former Sevilla full-back added to Marca.
“We have to focus on ourselves and ignore the comments from outside which are trying to destabilize [us].”
It has been interesting to watch the media reaction in Spain over Pique’s yellow card and the less muted response of the British media towards Chelsea and England captain John Terry who in essence did the same thing as Pique. Terry picked up a yellow card for time wasting in a match last weekend. The yellow card kept Terry out of a domestic cup-tie on Tuesday, but ensured that he would be able to play in Chelsea’s big league games against Newcastle and Man City the next two weeks. While there was a little writtne and said in England about whether Terry deliberately got himself booked, it was nowhere near the fervor that greeted the Pique yellow card in Spain.