Real Madrid Takes a Standt Against Spanish Football – Full List of Refereeing Scandals Exposed | OneFootball

Spanish football, and more specifically the world of refereeing, has been shaken since the “Negreira case” broke in early 2023. The case, which is still under investigation two years later, revolves around payments made by Barça to Negreira over a period of more than 18 years. It is a case that has shaken the foundations of LaLiga and continues to reverberate throughout Spanish football.

Investigations aside, which there are, the spectre of this fraud continues to haunt the refereeing ranks. And it is a fact that Real Madrid has emerged as one of the main players in this case. Especially in recent weeks, when the Whites have felt “mistreated”, going so far as to call this week for “an absolute restructuring of the CTA“.

LaLiga’s complaint against Real Madrid And the reasons behind the Whites’ complaint

A formal complaint that has received an almost immediate response from LaLiga, which has denounced Real Madrid for its statements with the support of almost all the Spanish professional football clubs. An attack against which Real Madrid will defend itself, citing the numerous complaints made by the signatory clubs themselves against refereeing decisions in recent years.

However, the fuss made over these complaints is such that one big question arises: What is Real Madrid complaining about? The reality is that the complaints about what has happened in recent weeks are just the tip of the iceberg. This is true both of the penalty awarded to Tchouaméni in favor of Lino in the derby, an action that was strongly protested by the Whites as well as by some former referees and even foreign newspapers, and of the Dantesque performance of Muñiz Ruiz in the RCDE stadium, in response to which Madrid issued a statement denouncing three errors.

And it’s no longer just about what happens on the pitch. It is also a factor. Without going any further, in January last year, Real Madrid accumulated a total of 22 refereeing errors against their interests in LaLiga. 22 errors in just 23 league games, including a handball by David Soria outside the penalty area, a goal disallowed for Rüdiger at the Metropolitano for offside without interfering with the trajectory of the ball, and an attack on Vinícius in Vallecas that ended without even a yellow card.

Mistakes that in many cases did not affect the result. But in others, such as the game at the Mestalla, where Gil Manzano blew the final whistle a second before Bellingham scored the 3-2, they did. Nevertheless, the Whites were crowned champions. Unlike what happened in seasons like 2020-21, when Martínez Munuera pointed to a penalty for Militao in a play in which the center back jumped backwards and the ball first touched him on the shoulder. Real Madrid ended up drawing the match and ultimately lost the LaLiga title by just 2 points.

Real Madrid also target VAR

However, the Whites’ complaints do not only concern the pitch, but also VAR. It is a fact that Real Madrid have had 31 goals and 9 penalties disallowed by VAR, more than any other team. And the Whites complain that the video referee is used for actions such as the last one in the derby, in a restitution and a throw-in, with a play that has nothing to do with slow motion and the speed of the game, but not for actions such as Romero’s wild tackle on Mbappé.

And another recent complaint from the Whites has to do with VAR audio. Real Madrid wanted to know why VAR was not used at the RCDE stadium. The CTA denied the club access to the audios. On other match days, however, the audios have been seen by journalists such as Gérard Romero, director of Jijantes.

Can anyone imagine the Premier League denying City access to VAR audio and then giving it to a journalist sympathetic to Liverpool? This is a question that has been asked repeatedly at Real Madrid, where they believe that there are hidden interests that they did not want to reveal by releasing the VAR audio. And that, contrary to what LaLiga and Javier Tebas think, is what Madrid is denouncing.

Bellingham’s dismissal, the last straw

However, after two weeks in which it seemed impossible that there would be room for more controversy, Munuera Montero showed Bellingham a straight red card after a protest. And he showed it to him after the English footballer addressed him with these words: “I’m talking to you with respect, don’t fuck with me”. However, the Englishman’s fuck off was interpreted by the referee as a fuck you, as he explained to Modric on the pitch.

To make matters worse, as if all this were not enough, he included his own version of events in the report, even though the broadcast footage had already proven otherwise. A misunderstanding that could not be verified and that left Real Madrid with ten men in a game in which they would eventually lose the lead, showing that the Spanish league is uniquely Spanish even when it comes to the verbal understanding of referees.

However, there was a precedent this season when Saúl Ñíguez, a Sevilla player, was also sent off by Muñiz Ruiz after saying to him “you are very bad“. These protests resulted in the Spanish player being shown a straight red card, as was the case with Bellingham, although on this occasion it was in very clear and unambiguous Spanish. However, García Pimienta, coach of Sevilla, one of the clubs most critical of Madrid’s complaints, said at the time that there should be something more serious to send off a player.

In the end, Real Madrid’s complaints about refereeing and VAR boil down to what they see on the pitch week after week. And as for the other clubs’ complaints, Ancelotti’s analysis was as succinct as it was accurate: “The others are not happy because they think it is a system that favors Real Madrid, but when Madrid wants to change the system, the others want to reject it.