Atletico Madrid left-back, Filipe Luis, has said that the Spanish Media and the Liga BBVA do all they can to 'protect' Barcelona's Lionel Messi. The Brazilian was shown a red card earlier this season for a tackle on the Argentine during Barcelona's 2-1 win.
The former Chelsea man was handed a 3-match suspension because of the "special seriousness of the action," but on appeal had the ban reduced to one game – missing Atletico's 3-1 win over Eibar – and has since returned to the first team.
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Speaking to Brazilian TV station Esporte Interativo, Luis said, "It was a red card, it was not a mistake by the referee, it was a red card. I went out on the field and that was it, a one-match suspension and I served it.
"I was not late, I went after the ball. Now that type of play happens during every match, but because it was with Messi and because here he is the darling of the media and La Liga, obviously no one wants to see one of the best players of all time taken out. No one wants to miss a chance to see him play and that is why all of this happened."
The Atletico man's comments prompted a response from La Liga president Javier Tebas who rubbished claims that the media and the Liga were shielding Messi or anyone for that matter.
"For us, all the players are protected in La Liga," he told AS.com. "We don't differentiate between Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo or a player from Rayo Vallecano. We are creating a global league and the big and small clubs all matter to us."
Atletico Madrid trail Barcelona by 8 points and are only 2 points ahead of local rivals Real Madrid. Barcelona, meanwhile, are all set to defend their La Liga trophy and are going extremely strong in the Champions League as well already holding a 2-0 away goals advantage over English giants Arsenal.
