Spanish Referee Committee Responds To Real Madrid Complaints

JAKARTA - The head of the Spanish Referee Committee (CTA), Luis Medina Cantalejo, has retaliated against Real Madrid's allegations of manipulation and forgery of competition by officials.

The Real Madrid Board of Directors sent an open letter to the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Spanish Sports Supreme Authority (CSD) on Monday, February 3, 2025, furious with the referee's leadership in a 0-1 defeat against Espanyol last weekend.

The letter highlighted the failure of referee Alejandro Muniz Ruiz to remove Espanyol defender Carlos Romero - who then scored a winning goal - for a foul on Kylian Mbappe, and annulled Vinicius Junior's goal.

The letter asked RFEF to release an audio recording of the conversation between Muniz and video assistant referee (VAR), Javier Iglesias Villanueva.

"The events that occurred in this match exceeded the human error limit or referee's interpretation."

"The match represents the top of the refereeing system that is completely distrusted and calls for structural reforms," the Real Madrid Board of Directors said.

Reply to Los Blancos' letter, Luis Medina Cantalejo confirmed that there are no corrupt referees, especially in La Liga.

"We are not involved in a war of words with the team. I don't want to add fuel to the fire," Luis Medina Cantalejo said in a quote from an interview on Thursday, February 6, 2025.

"I don't have to be ashamed of anything. My colleagues and I are not corrupt. We may be very careless, or very bad, but corrupt? No!"

"I don't like people saying we're corrupt. I have to go to work every day because we have no choice, competition continues."

"However, I don't like it. The referee is honorable. Regardless of all the letters, statements, no referee came to the stadium with the intention of hurting anyone," Cantalejo said again.

Real Madrid has repeatedly complained about referee standards and decisions in Spain. Through the club's television channel, Los Blancos highlighted the mistakes of officials.

In fact, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez asked the Spanish government to intervene in this matter.

The complaint increased after the disclosure of the Negreira case. A criminal investigation is ongoing against alleged payments made by Barcelona to former CTA Vice President, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

The new RFEF president, Rafael Louzan, claimed last week that Perez had told him he wanted to bring the British referee to Spain to improve the quality of the referee.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, former Barcelona star and Spanish National Team Gerard Pique, said Real Madrid's tactics to blame the referee were only to distract from their poor play.

"The (Real Madrid) letter is just a cover in its true sense because they have been doing this for 120 years."

"When they lose, they will look for other things to talk about ( everyone) because that's what they want."

"The complaints about referees will always be there and this is what Real Madrid always does. They make everyone excited about other things when things don't go according to their wishes. We are used to it," Piqua said at a league promotion event.