Real Madrid on Monday described officiating in Spain as “rigged” and “completely discredited” following the club’s shock 1-0 defeat at struggling Espanyol over the weekend.
After Carlos Romero of Espanyol was not sent off for his careless tackle on Kylian Mbappe in the 61st minute of Saturday’s match, the Spanish powerhouses were infuriated.
Romero scored the game-winning goal after receiving a cynical foul ticket, giving Real Madrid a one-point lead in La Liga.
“The events of the match exceeded any margin for human error or refereeing interpretation,” the secretary of Real’s board of directors, Jose Luis del Valle Perez, wrote in a letter to Spain’s football federation (RFEF), which the club posted online.
“What happened at the RCDE Stadium represents the peak of a completely discredited refereeing system, in which decisions against Real Madrid have reached a level of manipulation and alteration of the competition that cannot be ignored,” he added.
A goal by Vinicius Junior was disallowed because Mbappe was deemed to have fouled his marker, and Romero was spared a red card.
“Given the seriousness of the facts, Real Madrid demands that the RFEF immediately hand over the VAR audios relating to these two key actions in the match,” the club said.
The Spanish giant called for a “complete” reform of the refereeing system in Spain, accusing it of being “completely rigged and structurally built to protect itself.”
“When those who should be the object of supervision and control are, at the same time, a decisive factor in the choice of those who should carry out this task of supervision, we end up with what we are currently experiencing,” the club said, adding the system “has proved to be corrupt from within.”
“It was a clear foul, a very ugly tackle; lucky there’s no serious injury,” said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti in his post-match criticism of the decision to not send off Romero.
