Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone derisive – ‘Thank you La Liga, thank you RFEF’

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has once again come out to publicly criticise the Spanish football authorities, with neither the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) or La Liga have escaped his wrath.

Simeone was critical of the RFEF for not moving their Copa del Rey semi-final first leg from Wednesday to Thursday last week, claiming that it was not fair that Athletic Club played on the Friday and had more rest, while Atletico played on the Sunday.

After their defeat to Sevilla on Sunday night, Simeone was upbeat about his players, seeing their disappointing away form as a result of poor finishing. Los Rojiblancos are a midtable side away from home, and have won just 6 of their 12 away games in La Liga.

“I am proud of the footballers, they are doing an extraordinary job. At this moment there are no words to explain the effort they made in the two matches to be able to tie or win the match. I understand that football has these twists and turns, the goals will come when they have to arrive,” he told Cadena SER.

Ahead of their Champions League Round of 16 first leg with Inter Milan, Simeone was again frustrated with the calendar.

“Inter play on Friday, we play on Saturday, but hey, don’t worry, thanks to La Liga, thanks to the Federation, we are going to continue moving forward just the same.”

Los Rojiblancos take on Las Palmas at home on Saturday afternoon in the early kick-off, giving the Italian side around 16 hours extra rest, ahead of their clash on the Tuesday. Undoubtedly the scheduling has become increasingly tough for all sides involved, and Simeone is far from the only one to make his feelings felt. Nevertheless, his league rivals will point out that Simeone receives more than double the resources of the vast majority of his competition with which to handle those demands.