Chivas' Flores to blame referee if he gets fired

Days after the Clasico Tapatio, Chivas manager Efrain Flores continued to be upset over the penalty call on Sunday that cost Chivas the game against Atlas.

The penalty call which led to Atlas' goal in the dying seconds of the 1-0 game has left Flores with a bitter aftertaste, and the thought that the Mexican referees are at fault for the state of the game in the country. Flores also realized that the bad slump that Chivas are going through could cause him to lose his post.

"They're going to fire me, and that'll be on your conscious," Flores said, a statment aimed at referee Marco Antonio Rodriguez. "You never know, maybe tomorrow they'll throw me out. It was the last drop before the glass split."

Despite his comments against Rodriguez, Flores still retains some respect for the referee.

"For me, Marco Antonio Rodriguez is the best referee in Mexico. But why don't we bring in foreign referee's too so there can be a little more competition? There's foreign managers, foreign players, but no foreign referees. Maybe until they bring in foreign referees we'll get even. Marco Antonio Rodriguez is the best in Mexico, but he made a mistake with us, and that tells you that we're at a critical point."

Flores also extended an invitation to Mexican referees to their travels to South America because he believes that the refereeing in Mexico is hurting the national team. He said the Mexican player who plays on the national team easily goes down during rough play, and officials usually never call anything.

"Do you think making those calls will improve the game? We go against the US, and do you know how many penalties are called that way? We go to South America, and do you know how many grabs there are? I'm worried about what's happening in our Mexican football. I respect that they thought it was a penalty but during a Clasico there's a high intensity that the game is played with, is it enough to call a penalty? It goes deeper because they committed a foul on Javier Hernandez inside the box, but they didn't call anything. So why don't referees help more on physically helping our game?" -- Goal.com