Due to a number of contentious calls made during Saturday’s 1-0 La Liga loss at Espanyol, Real Madrid has formally complained to the Spanish football federation.
In response to a deteriorating evaluation of the work of VAR Javier Iglesias Villanueva and match official Alejandro Muniz Ruiz, the champions have called for a “structural reform” of refereeing in Spain.
Carlos Romero of Espanyol, who scored the game’s lone goal after being booked for what the team believed to be a “brutal” challenge on Kylian Mbappe, is the target of Real Madrid’s complaints.
Vinicius Junior’s goal being disallowed also infuriated them.
“The events that transpired in this match have exceeded any margin of human error or referee interpretation,” the letter, delivered to Rafael Louzan, president of the RFEF, stated.
“What happened at the RCDE Stadium represents the culmination of a completely discredited refereeing system, in which the decisions against Real Madrid have reached a level of manipulation and adulteration of the competition that can no longer be ignored.”
Real claims in a long letter that Romero’s tackle on Mbappe was “deserving of immediate expulsion” and that it was “manifestly erroneous” that the decision to not send him off was upheld by VAR. Carlo Ancelotti, the head coach of Real Madrid, called it “inexplicable”.
They also claim that they should have been given a penalty for the moment where Mbappe chalked off Vinicius’ “goal” for a foul earlier in the move.
The letter goes on to say: “The scandal generated by this match has once again had worldwide repercussions, with the international press denouncing the biassed use of the VAR in Spain and the lack of credibility of Spanish refereeing.”
Barcelona is presently four points behind Madrid, who lead La Liga by one point over local rivals Atletico.
