Real Madrid TV explodes at Sevilla: Why didn't you complain about Rodri's elbow!
What's the story?
Real Madrid TV have cranked up the attack on Sevilla, hitting back at the Andalusian club's complaints about the refereeing in a meeting that finished 4-1 to the Madrid side. The channel accused their opponents of double standards over refereeing incidents, claiming the complaint is designed to draw attention away from the scoreline.
Footage of an alleged elbow by Barcelona player Rodri, which went unpunished in a previous fixture, got another airing. Why, the channel asked, do Sevilla protest about refereeing against Real Madrid but say nothing when Barcelona are involved?
"Sevilla didn't complain about Rodri's elbow. Why doesn't Sevilla complain on Barcelona's day and stay silent when they produce a good performance?", the channel's pundits said. They argued the difference in how matches get analysed raises questions, and that the Andalusian club is trying, as they put it, to shift attention away from the four goals it conceded against Real Madrid.
Real Madrid TV accuses Tebas of imposing censorship
Sevilla were not the only target. The channel also went after Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish league, accusing him of censoring images of the protests against him at the Santiago Bernabeu during the match.
Viewers never saw the protest banner against Tebas during the broadcast, the channel's pundits said, arguing that the league president meddles in the choice of images shown and tells commentators what they can say, in their words.
They went further. The protests inside the stadium mattered more than some of the events of the match, in their view, and the league is disrupting the competition. It marks another escalation in the dispute between the Madrid club and the Spanish league's administration.
"Barcelona's league and Tebas and the filthy Negreira"
On it went. The channel argued there is a drive to harm Real Madrid, citing what it described as the refereeing controversy in the Real Betis and Barcelona match, then tying the criticism aimed at the Madrid club to the Negreira case and the row with Tebas.
Real Madrid produced a strong performance against Sevilla, the channel's pundits said, yet the discussion turned to other issues rather than the team's display and the result. Certain parties, they added, are trying to change the direction of the conversation about the match.
Then came the penalty awarded in Real Madrid's favour. The channel noted sarcastically that some critics fixate on controversial incidents to avoid talking about the rest of the match, before insisting there had been a prior foul on Arda Guler, according to its reading of the incident.
