Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta defends right to ‘respectful’ criticism of referees

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta defends right to ‘respectful’ criticism of refereesPA Media

Transcript

00:00You got the outcome you wanted with the appeal on the red card and obviously a lot of other

00:10things have happened this week around the referee. I wanted to reflect really on some

00:17of the things that have happened to him and his family but also Gary Neville has said

00:21that the way you and obviously some Arsenal fans react to referee decisions in general

00:28can, in an age of social media, fan the blames. How do you respond to that?

00:35You know that I never comment about other opinions.

00:39But in terms of when a referee is getting death threats from people, I mean that's...

00:47Dan, can I just have a minute? We did talk about this on Tuesday ahead of the game and

00:51around the game so it has been covered by Mikel so if we could move on that would be

00:54great, thanks.

00:55But full sympathy because I've been there and I'm there every time we don't win a game

01:01so I know what I'm talking about, I know how it feels and I know how much it affects you

01:05so full sympathy. I think I was very clear on my press conference before Girona that

01:10I reiterated that this has to be kicked off of football. So the biggest evolution of football

01:15in the next five, ten years is that socially we bring the game to a different level in

01:21the press session and the way socially you communicate towards the people who are participating

01:25in the industry.

01:31Some Arsenal fans talk about corruption and conspiracy. Can you just clear up what your

01:39feelings are? Do you feel that Arsenal are refereed in the same way as everybody else?

01:45For sure. We all have to respect that. That doesn't mean that we don't have to defend

01:49our position or give our views in a respectful way, which is what we do. With the right channels

01:56and the right communication with the PGMOL or someone individual or the Premier League

02:00and that will continue to go because a lot of times that communication has been there

02:05to give very positive feedback about things that we can change to make it better and that

02:10has happened. There have been a few changes that have been proposed in the Premier League

02:15or the Premier League or the PGMOL so it's always very constructive what we are trying

02:19to achieve here.