Johor coach blasts 'poor refereeing' in past AFC Cup games ahead of second leg semi clash against BFC

BEFORE TOMORROW'S crucial AFC Cup semi-final encounter against Bengaluru FC, Johor Darul Ta'zim head coach Robeto Carlos Mario Gomez has heated the battle up by firing shots at the AFC for poor refereeing standards in the AFC Cup.

After being held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg, the Argentinian coach criticised the referee for that game. This time, he did it pre-emptively, right off the bat,

"We know Bengaluru are a strong team. But we're more concerned with the officiating. Because if you remember, in the last two matches the refereeing was very bad for us. When we played away against South China, we received 7 yellow cards. Home to Bengaluru we got 6 yellow cards. For every single thing, yellow card. And for the other team's players, nothing. What happened with that, I ask you? We are the defending champions but nobody's defending us in this matter... it's not about Bengaluru. They are a good team. But we're more worried about the referee."

When asked if he or his club have officially written to AFC detailing their grievances about the officiating, however, he quickly dodged the question,

"It's not just for us, when we speak about this problem we want things to be better for everybody. We can win, lose or draw... it's okay. I've been working 40 years in football all over the world but I've never seen a situation like this, never. That's why I talk about it. Why not! I want to talk about it now, not after the game, to make sure it's not misconstrued. We've been working towards this for one year and it's bad to see all that work being put down like this."

Because of the bookings Johor players picked up in the first leg, 3 of their most prominent attackers are going to miss tomorrow's game. But Gomez insisted their substitutes were competent enough to see the game through,

"We have 3 strikers suspended. Diaz, Lucero and Amri. But we have Safee, and maybe another player like Rahim can fill in. And perhaps someone behind the striker... Bengaluru are very good in defence and have some fast players in the attack. But we just need one goal to get through. So we need to be patient."