"Real Madrid in league with the referees": the Catalan press lights the fire before the Clasico
Real's four goals do not quell the anger
Real Madrid's emphatic 4-1 win over Sevilla on Sunday evening sparked a fresh wave of refereeing controversy in Spain, after the Catalan press accused the Spanish giants of benefiting from officiating decisions, just one week before the eagerly awaited Clasico against Barcelona.
Catalan newspaper "Sport" claimed that Real Madrid "are in league with the referees", a reference to the incident in which Arda Guler caught Peque with his elbow in the 23rd minute, with the score still 0-0. The Turkish midfielder stayed on the pitch.
Sevilla were furious. They criticised the refereeing decisions after the match, and coach Luis Garcia Plaza voiced his displeasure that the game had not been completed with Real Madrid a man down, arguing the incident should have led to the dismissal of the Real Madrid player.
"Sport" went further than the incident itself, arguing that Real Madrid, despite their repeated attacks on referees and refereeing institutions in Spain, benefit from controversial decisions in important matches. That, according to the newspaper, reflects a contradiction in the club's stance on officiating.
Over at "Mundo Deportivo", what happened at the Santiago Bernabeu was branded a "scandal". The paper also pointed to the return of Jose Mourinho's style of protesting against referees, an allusion to the repeated complaints associated with the Portuguese coach during his previous spell with Real Madrid.
Santi Nolla, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, suggested that Real Madrid's ongoing campaign against officiating could influence decisions during matches. "El Esportiu" asked a different question: why did the video assistant referee technology, "VAR", not intervene to review the Guler incident, which it considered warranted intervention?
The timing could hardly be worse, with the Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona now a week away. Mutual accusations and the continuing controversy over the Negreira case have left the atmosphere around the fixture increasingly tense.
Mourinho hit back by demanding concrete evidence for the claims relating to refereeing. He stressed that he had asked television channels and pundits to show the footage the critics were relying on, but found nothing to prove, in his view, the existence of errors working in Real Madrid's favour during the match against Sevilla.
