- The club published the letter on its official website.
Real Madrid have sent a formal complaint to the Spanish Football Federation following Saturday’s loss to Espanyol in La Liga, which was a very controversial game with plenty of mistakes from the referee.
The letter in full can be read (Spanish) here, and here are some fragments of it.
“The events that occurred in this match have exceeded any margin of human error or referee interpretation. What happened at the RCDE Stadium represents the culmination of a completely discredited refereeing system, in which decisions against Real Madrid have reached a level of manipulation and adulteration of the competition that can no longer be ignored. The two most serious refereeing decisions in this match have once again highlighted the double standard with which Real Madrid is officiated (…), The brutal tackle on Kylian Mbappé, from behind, on the calf and with no chance of playing the ball, made in the 60th minute of the match by the Espanyol player who later scored the winning goal for his team, deserved an immediate expulsion as highlighted by the global press, ended with the referee’s decision, Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz, to only show a yellow card without the VAR, with Javier Iglesias Villanueva as responsible, intervening to correct a clearly erroneous decision, leaving unpunished an aggression that in any other competition would have resulted in an exemplary sanction.”
The letter goes on and Real Madrid keep on complaining about the Spanish referees.
“This refereeing scandal is not an isolated case. The Spanish refereeing system is completely flawed and structurally designed to protect itself, with the support of the Disciplinary Committees dependent on the RFEF itself, which systematically refuse to sanction referees, modify arbitrary sanctions, and, ultimately, maintain a system that has already been labeled as fraudulent by the ordinary justice system. The serious structural problems of Spanish refereeing have been exposed in recent years, with revelations that have highlighted practices incompatible with the transparency and impartiality that should govern the competition. However, despite the magnitude of the scandal and the erosion of the system’s credibility, there has been no real reform or effective accountability.”
Will Real Madrid’s complaint have any effect whatsoever on the referees from now on? Could this begin a new war between the Spanish Football Federation and the club? Stay tuned for more news.