The Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué faces being suspended for up to 12 weeks following an extraordinary outburst aimed at an assistant referee during the second leg of his club's Spanish Super Cup tie against Athletic Bilbao.

Piqué was dismissed 10 minutes into the second half after he responded to a decision given against his side by angrily making his way to the side of the pitch and shouting in the face of the referee’s assistant.

According to the referee, the words used were: “Me cago en tu puta madre” which translates as “I s**t on your w***e mother”.

However, Sergio Busquets is unsure his Barça team-mate would have used that particular wording.

The midfielder said: “According to the ref, [THE RED CARD]was because he shat on the whoring mother of the linesman. The TV might have caught it, but I’m sure Gerard wouldn’t have called her a whore or something like that.”

Barcelona, reduced to 10 men, drew 1-1 in the second leg but lost 5-1 on aggregate to last season’s seventh-placed side in La Liga.