Real Madrid have hardly held back on criticism of officiating in Spain over the past week. After 18 months of their TV channel battering every referee that takes charge of their games, Los Blancos emitted an incendiary statement on Monday evening – the wait for the response from La Liga President Javier Tebas was not a long one.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti said that the club were demanding explanations for an ‘inexplicable’ decision, but Real Madrid’s letter to RFEF President Rafael Louzan complained of a corrupt system, and claimed they had missed out on trophies as a result of officiating. They also demanded the sacking of a number of officials. This comes the week after Louzan also revealed that Real Madrid President Florentino Perez had been pressuring him over refereeing too.
No me ha sorprendido en absoluto la carta del Real Madrid, ya que no dice nada diferente de lo que su televisión lleva tiempo repitiendo.Muchos defendemos un cambio radical en el sistema arbitral, acercándonos al modelo inglés o al alemán, con una organización completamente…
— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) February 3, 2025
However Tebas has responded that while he was not surprised by their complaints, their actions do not add up to their words. Taking to Twitter/X, he explained the following.
“I was not at all surprised by Real Madrid’s letter, as it does not say anything different from what their television channel has been repeating for some time.”
“Many of us advocate a radical change in the refereeing system, moving closer to the English or German model, with a completely different organisation and much more transparency in all the structural decisions of Spanish arbitration.”
“What is truly striking is that, at a LaLiga meeting on April 19, 2023, we debated and even voted on this change, and Real Madrid opposed it, appearing lukewarm and without proposing solutions. Could it have something to do with the fact that, at that time, Rubiales was the president of the RFEF and Florentino Perez was a member of the RFEF Board of Directors?And notice that the “Negreira” case was already in court, and Real Madrid took weeks to get involved. Why?”
“By the way, when it comes to “corrupt systems”, there are few lessons they can give. And I am not referring to Real Madrid as an institution.”
Real Madrid’s complaints have not been alone, with Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and many more La Liga clubs complaining about the refereeing. The idea that Los Blancos are being disadvantaged by the officials has been met with little sympathy in Spain though.
