Real Madrid TV Launches Fierce Attack on Refereeing After Derby Loss
Real Madrid’s derby defeat to Atletico has ignited a firestorm far beyond the touchline, with the club’s official television channel launching one of its fiercest attacks yet on Spanish refereeing.
On the pitch, the story was simple enough. Atletico won 2-1, the decisive moment arriving when Dean Huijsen brought down Giuliano Simeone in the box and was sent off. Penalty given, game swung, derby lost.
Off the pitch, the narrative is anything but simple.
Fury on the airwaves
Real Madrid TV barely lingered on the football. Their anger reached back into the first half, where they argued the match should have taken a completely different shape. In their view, Atletico ought to have been reduced to nine men, with Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in both sent off long before Huijsen’s late intervention.
Those challenges, unpunished by the referee, became the cornerstone of the channel’s post-match coverage. The tone was not one of mild complaint; it was accusation, bordering on denunciation.
The broadcaster claimed the result had been “heavily manipulated,” openly questioning not just the performance of the officials in this derby, but the standard of refereeing applied to Real Madrid throughout the season. They framed the night as another chapter in what they see as a sustained pattern.
Their rhetoric was stark. They argued that many Madridistas would feel like “getting up and walking away from this competition,” insisting that “now they’ve tightened the screws a little more. Before, they tried to cover it up; now they don’t.”
The implication was clear: this is not about one bad night, but a campaign.
Direct attack on the referee
The channel then went further, moving from criticism of decisions to a personal attack on the match official, Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias. Citing a recent episode, they pointed out that he had been “hanging out with Barcelona players a few weeks ago,” and linked that to his performance in this derby.
“It’s all sickening,” the broadcast raged, accusing the authorities of indifference even if “the sh*t spills over into [Javier] Tebas’s La Liga.” According to Real Madrid TV, what has unfolded this season has already pushed “everyone over the edge.”
This was not the language of a club media outlet seeking calm. It was a deliberate escalation, dragging La Liga and the RFEF into the firing line alongside the referee.
Claims of systemic bias
The accusations did not stop at one match or one official. Real Madrid TV painted a picture of a league where the champions of Europe are being systematically held back.
They spoke of a “different standard when it comes to Madrid,” insisting that “they don’t let them compete,” and directly attributing that to the “plans of La Liga and the RFEF.”
The rhetoric turned almost theatrical, but the anger behind it was unmistakable. The channel claimed that “all that’s missing is a directive allowing Madrid’s rivals to take the field armed with revolvers,” a line designed to shock and underline the depth of their conviction that the team is being targeted.
They also highlighted the flashpoint involving Lee Kang-in and Fede Valverde. When Valverde protested after being caught by the Korean midfielder, the referee’s response, they argued, carried a “cocky, thuggish attitude.” For the channel, that exchange symbolised the lack of respect they believe Real Madrid are shown by officials.
A derby framed as evidence
In the end, Huijsen’s red card and the penalty against him were held up as the final piece of evidence. Real Madrid TV questioned whether an Atletico player would ever have been sent off in similar circumstances at the other end of the pitch, given what they see as the pattern of refereeing decisions this season.
“Given how the refereeing has gone,” they said, they doubted an Atletico dismissal would have been forthcoming for an equivalent incident. From their perspective, “the football debate doesn’t make sense” when, in their eyes, the playing field is not level.
The match itself – the goals, the tactical shifts, the substitutions – was almost reduced to background noise. The real battle, as framed by the club’s own channel, is not with Atletico, but with the institutions that govern Spanish football.
Pressure building on Spanish refereeing
The fallout from this broadcast guarantees that the officiating debate will dominate the days ahead. In a country where referees already operate under suffocating scrutiny, this latest eruption from one of the world’s biggest clubs cranks the pressure up another notch.
Inside Valdebebas, though, the reality is more immediate. Real Madrid have lost a derby, dropped points, and will now have to rebuild their defence without the suspended Huijsen. The sense of grievance may fuel them, but it will not plug the gaps at the back.
The season moves on. The question is whether Spanish refereeing, now dragged once again into the centre of the storm, can move with it.
