Petition filed at Change.org to strip Barcelona of their La Liga and Champions League title
The age old Barca-Real Madrid rivalry has taken on a new platform, with a petition filed on Change.org demanding Barcelona’s Champions League and La Liga titles be stripped due to biased refereeing, as reported by AS.
The petition comes in response to a similar one calling for Real Madrid’s first five European cups to be stricken out of all record books, on account of improper competition. Since the competition between 1955-56 and 1959-60 was not in the same format as the modern Champions League, the petition demanded that all five titles won by the Los Blancos during this time be revoked with immediate effect, and has already amassed an alarming 60,000 signatures.
Also read: Petition at change.org demands UEFA to revoke Real Madrid’s first five ‘false’ European Cups
The new petition calls UEFA to revoke Barcelona’s 2008/09 Champions League title along with the 2015/16 La Liga trophy, citing referees being the “12th man” in the Barcelona squad as the reason for this absurd demand.
The petition reads: "The Champions League should be taken away from this farcical club along with the Liga that was handed to Barcelona by referees repeatedly allowing them to play against 10 men and win with penalties awarded by Stark, Mateu Lahoz..."
Barcelona had reached the 2008-09 Champions League final in controversial circumstances by defeating Chelsea in the semi-final courtesy of an Andres Iniesta winner deep into injury time. Chelsea fans and players were outraged following the final whistle having been allegedly denied four genuine penalty claims and officials received heavy criticism from the footballing fraternity. The Catalan giants later went on to lift the trophy by defeating Manchester United in the final.
The appeal is accompanied by an image, obviously photoshopped, showing a statement on the Club’s official website: "Official Statement: Barça would like to thank all the referees of the 'LPF' for all the penalties, sending-offs and offside goals given. Without you this Liga victory wouldn't have been possible. Visca Barça".
With the petitions unlikely to make the concerned authorities even stir from their seats, it remains to be seen whether Change.org allows the throwing of stones by the Madridistas and Cules at each other, or the site may start flooding with petitions asking for Spain’s World Cup win be revoked on account of Iniesta’s “offside” goal or perhaps Barcelona haters wanting Neymar’s transfer nullified on grounds of “suspicious circumstances”.