Gigi Buffon won’t let go.
Gianluigi Buffon has refused to apologise for his comments on referee Michael Oliver.
The legendary Italian stopper reacted furiously to Oliver’s decision to award Real Madrid an injury-time penalty in their Champions League quarter-final second-leg clash with Juventus.
After penalising Medhi Benatia’s challenge on Lucas Vasquez, Oliver suddenly found himself surrounded by incensed Juve players, with an irate Buffon front and centre.
Buffon was subsequently sent off for the overly aggressive nature of his remonstrations and criticised Oliver during his post-match interview, saying the English official must have a ‘rubbish bin for a heart.’
However, despite having had the rest of the week to digest, Buffon has refused to take back what he said.
“I don’t have to make up for anything, because I am a human being who puts passion, sentiment and anger into what I do,” Buffon told the Le Iene television programme via Football Italia.
“You find a way to speak, right or wrong, that at times can seem excessive… but this is me, I am Gigi Buffon. The other night the game had finished an hour and a half ago, so consequently what one expresses at that moment are sentiments and thoughts that are strong, in certain respects raw, but the sentiments of a man who won’t hide behind a veil of hypocrisy and instead throws out what is bubbling in his guts. End of story.
“Right there, you cannot ask a man who lives sport as deeply as I do to be balanced, because even if I expressed these feelings in an exaggerated way, they were still logical thoughts. I’d say them all again. Maybe with a different type of language, one that was more civilised, let’s say. But the content remains and I stand by all of it.
“Even if I was excessive, I said what I thought, that he should not have given that penalty. A referee with more experience would not have blown his whistle and decided not to become the protagonist of the match. He would’ve left it running, turned around and let the two teams fight it out in extra time. Let the pitch do the talking.
Gianluigi Buffon absolutely destroys Michael Oliver in post-match interview https://t.co/rQCP3qy57J
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 12, 2018
Buffon went on to claim that Oliver was ‘too young’ to officiate a Champions League semi-final. Oliver is 33 and has been refereeing in the Premier League for eight years, while having also taken charge of several Champions League games prior to Madrid v Juventus.
“I’m sure Oliver will have a great career in future, but he’s too young to officiate a match like that. The beauty, the imponderable nature of football, means that unfortunately, this young man found himself in a situation that was too complex, too garbled and too big for him to deal with.
“So at the end of the day, what I said after the match, I don’t hold any rancour towards Oliver. I’m not even angry with him. It all ended there, but naturally in the heat of the moment one does feel I’m not saying penalised… I felt defrauded. Not defrauded of the result, but of the night. It was a night that can never be repeated.
“We could’ve written a memorable page in the history books of football for Juve, for Italy. Our victory combined with that of Roma (who beat Barcelona 3-0 the night before to wipe out a 4-1 first leg aggregate result) would’ve been just incredible.
“Before being a Juventino, I am an Italian, and I really cared about Italian football doing well. Seeing Roma achieve that amazing comeback, I was so passionately cheering them on. Seeing Juve go to Madrid and come back from 3-0 down… I got emotional. It was just priceless.
“I have lost more important matches than this, but the way it developed and was evolving, it was the most wonderful and exciting match I had ever experienced with Juventus. I think the same is true of my teammates and the fans.”
On Saturday, Gary Lineker led calls for Buffon to apologise after reports surfaced of Oliver and his family receiving threatening messages in the aftermath, writing on Twitter: “These vituperous attacks on Michael Oliver and his wife are repugnant. Big admirer of Buffon but his behaviour since has been inflammatory and out of order. Oliver was doing his job and hard to argue against his decisions. Understand the emotion but time to defuse it, Gianluigi.”
These vituperous attacks on Michael Oliver and his wife are repugnant. Big admirer of Buffon but his behaviour since has been inflammatory and out of order. Oliver was doing his job and hard to argue against his decisions. Understand the emotion but time to defuse it, Gianluigi.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) April 14, 2018
