Players and coaches must protect Spanish referees says Barca s Flick

LaLiga referees must be protected by players and coaches, Barcelona boss Hansi Flick said on Friday after Jose Munuera Montero was vilified when he showed Real Madrids England midfielder Jude Bellingham a red card.

Montero was forced to close his Instagram account after receiving tens of thousands of comments, including insults and death threats, while the Spanish football federation looked into a company he co-owned over a possible conflict of interest.

The referee was cleared of wrongdoing but the treatment of match officials in Spain was thrust into the spotlight as a result of the red card shown to Bellingham for directing foul language at him during Saturdays 1-1 draw at Osasuna.

Bellingham was handed a two-match suspension despite saying in his defence that the referee had misunderstood him as he was talking to himself in English.

Its very important to have the referees and ... at the moment what they are doing here in Spain with them (referees) is unbelievable. You have to think about their families also, Flick said ahead of Barcas trip to Las Palmas on Saturday.

Everyone makes mistakes ... I think its the responsibility of the coaches and also of the players to protect them.

Now we have the VAR and we have to trust in them. The federation has to show how strong it is. This is very important ... We have to change a little bit these things because they (referees) are human, he told reporters.

Barcelona top LaLiga, level on 51 points with second-placed Real Madrid and a point ahead of Atletico Madrid in third.

Barca host Atletico in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final on Tuesday and Flick said he might rotate his players when they face relegation-threatened Las Palmas, who are in 17th place, level on 23