Guangzhou Evergrande coach Luiz Felipe Scolari rounded on the referee after his side missed the opportunity to open a 13-point gap at the top of the Chinese Super League standings on Tuesday evening when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Beijing Guoan.
Scolari's team moved 11 points clear of second-placed Jiangsu Suning with just nine games remaining in the 2016 campaign, but the Brazilian World Cup winner was less than impressed with the performance of referee Zhou Gang.
"Today the winner of this game is not the team who targeted a win," Scolari told a news conference. "The referee also had his favourites. If this is how football has developed globally then it goes against my whole concept of the game.
"My counterpart from Beijing [Xie Feng] has done his job well. They had very good tactics today and that tactic was to try to take a point. There were 360 fouls in a 90 minute game, but only one yellow card and [Guangzhou midfielder] Yu Hanchao ended up in the hospital."
Beijing's Zhao Hejing was the only player to go into the official's book for a foul on Yu early in the game while both teams saw shots come back off the woodwork during the opening 45 minutes.
The draw, however, still moves Guangzhou closer to a record sixth consecutive Chinese Super League title.
"I am quite satisfied with most of the players' performances and desire," added Scolari. "We weren't very good in the last 10 minutes. We wanted to win too much and forgot about our tactics and plan. This mentality could have ended up in a loss, but anyway I'm quite happy with my players.
"Beijing's defence was very deep. They tried to disrupt our rhythm and the referee hasn't done anything to stop that. I want to go home and check how many fouls Beijing committed in this game, and compare it with the world average level, and then compare it with the average number of cards.
"Anyone knowing football can understand what I am talking about. But anyway, Beijing have gained their one point."