Top spot of Ligue 1 is set to be contested on Sunday as third-placed Paris Saint-Germain travel to table-topping Lyon but the hosts’ manager has issued a warning to the referee ahead of the clash.
Hubert Fournier has claimed that PSG forward and everyone’s favourite football eccentric, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, goes out of his way to insult match officials in languages other than French so that they will not understand.
“All the referees in this league get insulted by this person,” Fournier said of the Sweden skipper.
“Apparently, the referees are not bilingual or trilingual, so they don’t understand.”
He added: “In a way, it’s better to speak Italian or English to insult referees.”
But the Lyon boss has urged match referee Clement Turpin not to rise to Ibra’s incitement when first plays third on Sunday evening.
“The person who is going to be most provoked is Mr Turpin,” he said.
“I don’t want my team to provoke, I don’t want us to insult the officials. I hope we remember not to fall for Zlatan’s provocations.”
