Concern for Real Madrid as court orders case against RMTV videos to be reopened | OneFootball

Last year, La Liga and Sevilla had filed complaints with the RFEF’s Disciplinary Committee against Real Madrid.

The complaints were filed specifically against the videos published by RMTV. La Liga argued that Real Madrid were orchestrating a campaign of pressure and harassment against referees.

The committee dismissed the case, citing no basis for disciplinary action. La Liga appealed against the decision rejected by the RFEF’s Appeals Committee due to procedural delays.

The matter was then taken to Spain’s Administrative Court for Sport (TAD), which also rejected the appeals.

Court overturns case against Real Madrid

However, in a major development, the Central Contentious-Administrative Court No. 4 in Madrid has overturned that stance.

According to IUSPORT (h/t SPORT), the court ruled in favour of La Liga and has ordered the RFEF to reopen the disciplinary case against Real Madrid.

Will Florentino Perez shift the club’s policy of publishing videos against referees through RMTV? (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

The court’s ruling states that the conduct by Real Madrid may violate several articles of the RFEF’s Disciplinary Code as the videos ‘go beyond mere sporting criticism’ and ‘could damage the integrity of the competition and the honour of the refereeing community.’

Crucially, the court also rejected Real Madrid’s defence that their videos were protected by freedom of expression.

The court stated that such rights are limited when they infringe upon rules of fair play and amount to harassment of match officials.

The ruling now means the disciplinary proceedings will start from scratch, potentially landing Real Madrid into a legal trouble that could continue for months.

It will be interesting to see whether or not this decision will have any impact on the frequency of videos published by RMTV against referees, heading into the new season.