Rio slams European referees
06 Apr 2007 - 10:53:35
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has accused European referees of failing to communicate effectively with players during matches.
The England centre-half was annoyed by Herbert Fandel's performance in United's 2-1 Champions League quarter-final first leg defeat against AS Roma during which the German referee refused to interact with the players.
"I don't want to make excuses or get myself in trouble, but I don't think the referee had a very good game," claimed Ferdinand.
"In Europe it is apparent that the referees have an ignorance problem. You can't speak to them, you try to talk to them in the best manner possible and they turn their nose up at you.
"Something needs to be done about it. There is no communication between the players and the referee and that makes players frustrated.
"Some of the decisions on Wednesday night were laughable. If you saw me on the pitch you would have seen me laughing because a few of the decisions were that bad.
"The referees have got to provide a better environment on the pitch, talking to the players and listening to them without looking at us as if we're a piece of rubbish."
Meanwhile, Ferdinand has backed his team-mates to overturn the first leg deficit when the sides meet at Old Trafford next Tuesday.
"I think 1-1 would have been better," he continued. "But considering the situation with us being down to ten men and being 1-0 behind, I think we showed good resilience.
"I thought Roma's goals were quite lucky. The first one was a deflection and the second one Edwin (Van der Sar) parried and it fell straight to one of their players.
"But there's a sense of confidence in the changing room."