Calderón Chides Mijatovic And Schuster For Ref Rant

Ramón Calderón believes that Predrag Mijatovic and Bernd Schuster were both wrong to speak out against the referee following Real Madrid's win over Athletic Bilbao at the weekend.

Los Merengues' president was not impressed when the club's sporting director criticised Alfonso Alvarez Izquierdo's performance and the coach followed suit in the press conference.

Madrid were accused of not knowing how to win and Calderón was concerned that the complaints from within had harmed the club's reputation.

"We have to help the referees," he told Marca.

"I have always said that a club as large as Real Madrid cannot make excuses about the referes, injuries or bad luck."

Athletic had Fernando Amorebieta sent off, while Madrid could have had Marcelo shown a red card for a lunge on Joseba Etxeberria, but instead the reigning champions bemoaned their own bad luck.

Mijatovic spoke of a conspiracy against the club after seeing a goal ruled out for offside for the second consecutive week and Schuster also said he was concerned by the matchday officials.