Florentino Pérez, the club president of Real Madrid, emphasised Spanish refereeing as the source of significant “damage” to the Spanish powerhouses despite a spate of disappointing performances, an injury problem, and Xabi Alonso’s impending dismissal.
Los Blancos defeated Alavés 2-1 on Sunday night to finally go back to winning ways in La Liga. However, controversy was in the air as Vitoria’s last whistle blew. Nahuel Tenaglia made a bad attempt to knock down Vinicius Junior inside the box in the final seconds of the game. Referee Víctor García Verdura failed to award what looked to be a clear penalty on the field, and Pablo González Fuertes in the VAR room failed to even summon the official to the monitor.
Although the outcome was ultimately unaffected by the rejected spot kick, Pérez took the chance to rekindle his criticism of Spanish referees.
Christmas is a time to think on the things that are important to us. At the club’s yearly Christmas lunch with the media, the 78-year-old stated, “And in our case, I can tell you categorically that Real Madrid’s greatest concern is the situation of refereeing in Spain.”
‘The biggest scandal in the history of football’
Referring to the case as the biggest scandal in the history of the game, Perez continued his long tirade about it.
The fact that football organisations have given up on Real Madrid in this battle is beyond unbelievable. How is it possible that we are the only ones pursuing justice in the criminal case? How can the referees’ president be requesting that we go on? How can we overlook the greatest scandal in football history? We’ll never do it. How can LaLiga and the RFEF, who are meant to protect integrity, act in this manner? Why don’t they do anything? I hope we’ll find out eventually. They have an obligation to uphold the competition’s integrity and avoid coming out as involved in such a grave situation.
“The “Negreira case” is without a doubt the biggest issue confronting football today, even on a global scale. We now know that almost €8 million was spent for technical reports on referees, the most costly studies in the world, and that the coaches who were supposed to get them were not even given them, as has been reported in recent days.
