Barca report 'irresponsible' La Liga chief Tebas

Madrid (AFP) – Barcelona reported La Liga president Javier Tebas to Spain’s highest sports court on Thursday after he questioned the Barca players’ conduct during a heated 3-2 win at Valencia last weekend.

Luis Suarez and Neymar were hit by a plastic bottle thrown by Valencia fans as Barca celebrated Lionel Messi’s 94th-minute winner on Saturday.

A disciplinary committee of the Spanish Football Federation fined Valencia 1,500 euros ($1,600) on Wednesday and said a repeat could result in a stadium closure.

However, the committee also criticised the “reproachable behaviour” of the Barca players as Neymar and Messi were recorded shouting obscenities towards the Valencia fans.

“The most serious thing is the thrown bottle, but some players acted in a way we don’t like,” Tebas said of the incident earlier this week.

However, those comments have been branded “irresponsible and unbecoming of a sports official” by Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

Moreover, in a statement the club invited Spain’s administrative sports court to open disciplinary proceedings against Tebas and members of the Spanish federation’s disciplinary committee “for inadmissable assessments of the Barcelona players’ behaviour when they were assaulted during the game.”