Pellegrini apologizes after accusing Swedish referee of being "not impartial"

Manuel Pellegrini

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has apologized after his outburst against Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson on Wednesday.

Pellegrini was furious as he felt that Demichellis’ challenge on Messi was outside the box and had said, “The referee decided the game. He was on Barcelona’s side from the beginning until the end.”

Pellegrini has now gone on to apologize after for comments and said, “When you lose a game the way we lost against Barcelona, you are frustrated, you are angry. Maybe I said some things I didn’t mean so I apologise for what I said.

“Also I want to clarify what I said, I didn’t make any serious accusations to anyone, not to the referee, not to UEFA, not to anyone. I always say refereeing is a very difficult profession because they have only have a fraction of a second and after people compare their decisions with eight television cameras.

“It is not my way to act to criticise the referee, but in that case it was not a good day and he decided the game – but not with the intention to benefit Barcelona or damage Manchester City. He was in a bad day with very bad luck,” he added.

Pellegrini, who accused referee Jonas Eriksson for being partial, said that he meant the referee had a bad day, not that he was dishonest, “I felt from the beginning his criteria was not the same for both teams.

“I think he had a bad day – everyone can have a bad day – but I didn’t say that intentionally he didn’t give fouls for us or did give fouls for Barcelona.

“I said from the beginning it was not the same criteria. I repeat, a bad day, not dishonest.”