Real Madrid vs La Liga’s referees: A timeline of mistrust ahead of Atletico derby

By
James BAOUCH
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The build-up to La Liga’s top-of-the-table derby between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid on Saturday has been dominated by another bitter row between the home side and the Spanish football authorities over refereeing.

Madrid president Florentino Perez has long been critical of what many at the Bernabeu view as refereeing bias against their side, with the club further angered by two decisions which went against their side during last weekend’s 1-0 La Liga loss at Espanyol.

Ever since, there has been a flurry of club statements and media barbs exchanged between Madrid on the one side and the Spanish Federation (RFEF) and La Liga on the other.

This comes just as the system of Spanish refereeing, long controlled by the federation, seems set to be reformed with different interests battling to have some control over that process.

Here The Athletic looks back at the events of the last week to gauge how the current furore fits within the constant battles for power and influence within Spanish football.

What was the flashpoint this week?

Madrid were angered when Espanyol defender Carlos Romero received a yellow card for a foul on Kylian Mbappe in last Saturday’s La Liga game.

Romero fouled Mbappe from behind as the France international ran clear on the counter-attack. To compound Madrid’s dismay, the defender then scored the only goal of the game late on.


Romero leaps into his challenge to thwart Mbappe’s counter-attack (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Madrid were also upset at a Vinicius Junior goal being disallowed in the first half when referee Alejandro Muniz Ruiz blew for a foul by Mbappe in the Espanyol penalty area.

The video assistant referee (VAR) Javier Iglesias Villanueva did not intervene in either decision.

“The decision made by the referee and the VAR is inexplicable,” Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti said afterwards of the call not to show a red card to Romero.

Most Spanish media pundits agreed that the defender should have been sent off, and Romero himself admitted afterwards that his challenge had been “a bit ugly”.

How did Madrid react?

Madrid’s official media were immediately very critical of the officials. Pundits on Real Madrid TV, the club’s official channel, claimed the decision proved that Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) chief Luis Medina Cantalejo is involved in a conspiracy against their club.

Pundits on the channel also called for the sacking of Carlos Clos Gomez, a former referee now head of VAR in Spain, and the departure of RFEF president Rafael Louzan.

The bombastic coverage also alluded to the scandal involving Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee who owned a company that was paid a total of €7.3million (£6.4m; $7.8m) by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018.

The post-match report published on Madrid’s club website also complained about the decision not to send off Romero, while saying that, in the build-up to Vinicius Jr’s disallowed goal, it had actually been Mbappe who was fouled by Espanyol’s Pol Lozano — and not the other way around as Muniz Ruiz ruled.


Referee Muniz Ruiz (Ricardo Larreina/Europa Press via Getty Images)

On Monday, Madrid filed a formal complaint to the RFEF asking for the “immediate submission of VAR audio” related to the two decisions.

They also sent a letter with the request to RFEF president Louzan and the Spanish government’s High Sports Council (CSD) which said Spain’s system of referring was “completely discredited” and “rotten from the inside”.

How did the authorities react?

The Spanish federation quickly reacted with their own statement defending the “transparency and fairness” of Spanish refereeing and “deeply regretted the tone and seriousness of the accusations” against the officials.

In a quirk of timing, a meeting involving the federation, refereeing authorities, La Liga and all Primera and Segunda Division clubs had been called for Thursday to discuss issues including the potential reform of refereeing in Spain.

In another potential coincidence, Tuesday saw Spain’s Supreme Court accept an appeal from Louzan that a previous conviction for perversion of justice did not mean he was barred from being federation chief. Had the decision gone the other way, another election could have been required to choose what would have been a fourth president in 18 months.

This week also saw former federation president Luis Rubiales in court in Madrid facing charges of sexual assault and coercion after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final (which Rubiales denies).

What happened at Thursday’s meeting?

Madrid had previously indicated they would attend the meeting to discuss issues including refereeing reform, but they pulled out after the Espanyol game.

Issues discussed at the meeting in Madrid’s city centre included a reorganisation of the CTA, and its possible independence from the federation. How to bring more visibility and accountability to how VAR works was also debated. A new commission was proposed to study how refereeing is organised in other countries, including England and Germany, and then report back.

Among the club figures to speak against Madrid’s criticism of the referees were Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco and Atletico CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marin — both close allies of president Javier Tebas and La Liga.

Barcelona vice-president Rafael Yuste was present but did not get involved. Barcelona have previously criticised the current VAR system and asked for audios themselves when a potential ghost goal by winger Lamine Yamal was not given in an April 2024 Clasico which Madrid won 3-2.


Yamal complains in the Clasico of April 2024 (Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)

Louzan said afterwards he thought the current structure with the CTA “should be rethought” and that “the federation is open to listening and dialogue” but that Madrid’s behaviour “cannot be tolerated as they damage Spanish football”. He added that he personally did not see a problem with VAR audios being shared with clubs — as Madrid had called for last weekend.

Medina Cantalejo, who was appointed by Rubiales in 2021, told reporters afterwards that he was open to discussing changes, but wanted Spanish refereeing to remain “under the umbrella of the federation”.

Louzan has claimed Perez suggested to him in the past that a solution could be English referees potentially coming to referee Spanish games, something which the CTA chief suggested might not really fix the problem.

“They have the same problems in England as we do in Spain,” Medina Cantalejo said. “We’ve got great referees here. Every week they are asked to take games in other countries. Our officials whistle in the Greek Cup. If, in the end, referees are exchanged or come from abroad, it will be football which decides.”

What did Madrid think of Spanish refereeing before last weekend?

Perez has also often publicly criticised the standard of refereeing in Spanish football, suggesting too many decisions go against his team, including during VAR reviews.

“Nobody knows who draws these VAR lines, or what frame they choose for it,” the Blancos chief said at Madrid’s AGM in November 2023. “This happens constantly, and generates doubts about Spanish refereeing. I trust that the Spanish government will act and take the required measures to regenerate the structures of refereeing in our country.”

Such videos pointing to alleged biases against their team by match officials have become regular from RMTV ahead of big domestic games against their rivals Atletico and Barca.

“No other team, in any sport in the world, does anything like this,” Medina Cantalejo said last year about these videos. “It’s not positive for the competition to try to pressurise an official before the game, which is the objective of these videos. But referees have to be prepared (to handle) this. It doesn’t worry me, and it doesn’t worry the referee.”


Real Madrid president Florentino Perez (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

How have both clubs been preparing this week?

Recent weeks saw the issue of bias in refereeing become a public debate between Madrid coach Ancelotti and his Atletico counterpart Diego Simeone, with both men snapping back and forth at each other at various times.

Simeone preferred not to get into the issue at Friday’s pre-game news conference, while Ancelotti tried to stay above the fray and just about managed it. “People say that the system favours Madrid, but when Madrid want to change it, they reject the idea,” the Italian said.

Atletico players speaking ahead of Saturday’s game called for the match officials to be left alone ahead of the game at the Bernabeu.

“The best way is to leave referees in peace and that way they can do their job at their best possible level,” Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak told ESPN.

“I hope that what has happened doesn’t go beyond a statement and that no one feels affected or pressured,” defender Jose Maria Gimenez said.

Atletico’s social media accounts also published a set of messages poking fun at the whole storm ahead of Saturday’s game. One in Spanish asked the Spanish Royal Academy for the meaning of a list of verbs including ‘to pressure’, ‘to intimidate’, ‘to coerce’ and ‘to influence’.

Two further tweets then offered “instructions for the derby” including the step: “Once again, use your TV channel to pressure referees”…

… and “use your army of media buddies to spread your ramblings”.

Thursday also saw RMTV release a five-minute video full of what they said were mistaken decisions which went against Madrid in previous games overseen by Saturday’s referee Cesar Soto Grado and VAR Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea.

What about Tebas?

La Liga president Tebas has also long looked for changes to how refereeing is organised in Spain — and especially wanted to take control away from the federation when his previous rival Rubiales had ultimate control of that body.

Tebas told The Athletic in 2023 that, ideally, a new independent body would be established, similar to the situation in the Premier League.

Since Rubiales’ departure, relations between La Liga and the Federation have improved considerably. Tebas backed Louzan’s bid to become RFEF president, despite the legal issues, and has himself become a vice-president of the organisation.


Javier Tebas (Marco Steinbrenner/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

Tebas is also involved in regular power struggles with Perez. On Monday evening, he posted on X that he was “not surprised” by Madrid’s letter while saying he was in favour of a “radical change in the refereeing system” but that the Bernabeu hierarchy had previously blocked efforts at this.

After Thursday’s meeting, Tebas told reporters that La Liga would make a formal complaint about Madrid’s letter, and were considering what legal action they could take and against whom.

“Real Madrid are against everyone — they are hurting the competition,” Tebas said. “They make a story of victimhood that is not so. Perez always wants to be right and wants us to get down on our knees in the offices of ACS (the construction company Perez also leads).”

(Top photo: Pedro Salado/Getty Images) 



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