Joseph Joseph, president of Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the refereeing decisions made during the recent match against Saprissa. He suggested that the club may file a formal complaint with the Referees’ Commission.
Joseph specifically questioned the expulsion of Aarón Salazar, stating his belief that the second yellow card was unwarranted. He also disputed a penalty awarded via VAR for an alleged foul by Alexis Gamboa on Ariel Rodríguez, arguing that Rodríguez was actually pulling Gamboa’s shorts.
“There was Orlando Sinclair’s elbow to Fernando Piñar who is going to the hospital right now because he has a very swollen cheekbone. I don’t know if it’s broken or what it will be,” Joseph said.
He added: “And finally, there was the penalty on Anthony Hernández (which wasn’t called). There were four consecutive plays that I think in one way or another affected the result.”
Joseph clarified that Alajuelense continues to practice self-criticism and recognizes areas needing improvement on the field. When asked about filing a formal complaint regarding officiating, he indicated plans to discuss this with a board member responsible for such matters.
“I know there are things we need to correct; our points percentage is very low for a team like La Liga. We have to fix it and it’s in our hands,” Joseph stated.
He reiterated his point: “I want to be clear that internally everyone at Alajuelense knows we have things to correct, but some things are out of our control.”
“The match this Saturday shouldn’t have been lost; I even think we could have won it. But those are internal matters we need to address—however, there were four decisive plays within ten minutes,” he said.
Despite his criticism, Joseph acknowledged improvements in refereeing and praised Enrique Osses’ work as head of officiating: “VAR has helped and refereeing has improved. Enrique Osses does a great job. I want to see many positive things, but today there were some very serious mistakes,” he concluded.
