Real Madrid have made sure that the noise surrounding the officiating in La Liga has not died down over the last six weeks. After two years of Real Madrid TV releasing smear videos against referees, they upped the ante with an incendiary letter to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), claiming the system to be corrupt and manipulated against them.
That has been coupled by a clear rhetoric from manager Carlo Ancelotti. Generally reluctant to criticise officials in recent seasons, the Italian has whenever asked told the press that Real Madrid are being harmed by referees and that the system requires reform.
It was somewhat surprising when Fede Valverde last week noted that ‘all referees are human and all referees make mistakes’, empathising with officials and noting that players also make mistakes. Eyebrows were raised when barely an hour after his statements in the press conference, Valverde took to Twitter/X to ‘clarify’ his words, noting that he did not wish to ignore the way in which Real Madrid were suffering from La Liga officiating.
The contradiction was in further evidence last weekend, when before the match Real Madrid players posed with their Girona counterparts and the referees in front of a sign saying ‘respect the referee’, part of an RFEF initiative. In minute 12 of the action, the singing section at the Santiago Bernabeu chanted ‘corruption in the Federation’, encouraged by the club.
According to MD, Real Madrid’s squad, at least on all of them, are on board with the club’s stance. In the lead up to their clash with Girona, as both sets of players waited in the tunnel, one of the Real Madrid players commented to their opposition that they did not agree with the campaign against officials, but that they were required to accept the directives handed down from the Real Madrid hierarchy.
