Following their Inter Miami’s 3-0 defeat to Orlando Pirates, Lionel Messi has slammed the referee, saying he did not know the back-pass rule.
It was a back-pass that led to one of the goals, as Inter Miami fell to a 3-0 MLS home defeat to Orlando City on Sunday.
Luis Muriel put the visitors in front at the Chase Stadium with just two minutes before half-time.
With eight minutes into the second half Marco Palasic put Orlando two goals up before Dagur Dan Porhallsson made it three in added time.
One of those goals was as a result of an Orlando player initiating the play by passing to his own goalkeeper.
“All they could do was play long balls,” Messi told Apple TV+.
“Then there was a strange play in which one of their players passed the ball back to the goalkeeper.
“The referee told me he didn’t know the rule, that he didn’t understand it. From that play came a long ball and their goal.”
Messi urged the Major League Soccer, MLS, to improve the officiating without offering excuses for the Herons’ loss, insisting that there is always errors coming from the referees.
“I think MLS needs to take a closer look at the officiating,” the legendary footballer said.
