Neymar ran into issues with the referee Savio Pereira Sampaio, in Santos’s defeat against Flamengo. He even alleged that he was threatened by the referee. He was seen arguing with the referee, and received a yellow card in the 36th minute in the match that his team Santos lost 2-3.
The newspaper Globo has reported his quotes. “The referee is very bad. Besides being bad, with all due respect, he’s arrogant. That’s the word. Every time they go to the locker room they say that the captain is the one who can speak. When we go to speak, he turns his back and runs away.”
Neymar even said that, after refusing to talk, Sávio Sampaio threatened him: “When I talk to him, he threatens me. It’s complicated. I got a yellow card because he threatened me. He said: ‘If you come near me, I’ll give you a yellow card.’ I said: ‘Can’t I talk to you?” Globo quoted Neymar as saying.
The yellow card Neymar received came before Flamengo’s first goal, which came from a corner kick.
“In my opinion, it was a foul on Brazão, and it wouldn’t have resulted in a corner kick, which led to their goal. The refereeing in Brazil has been making huge mistakes. This needs to be addressed. The referee’s arrogance today, whose name I don’t even know, was awful,” he said.
Neymar’s frustration seems to have extended to his coach too, when he was replaced in the 85th minute. Globo reports that when he was about to be substituted by Rollheiser, Neymar asked his coach Juan Pablo Vojvoda, “Are you going to take me off? And he headed straight to the locker room.
With this defeat, Santos is in 17th place, in the relegation zone, with 33 points.
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