Real Madrid escalates referee dispute as Mourinho skips press conference

A red card and a skipped press conference

Real Madrid beat Villarreal 1-0 at the Bernabéu on Saturday, 10 October, but the match ended in a new dispute with the referees. Vinícius was sent off for pulling the hair of Villarreal's Nathan Saliba. Mourinho then did not attend the post-match press conference, which LaLiga rules require of coaches, and El Mundo reports that the absence brings a fine. The club accumulated two LaLiga penalties that weekend, including the fine it incurs in most matches for not offering a player in the mixed zone. According to El Confidencial, the club's side holds that referee Díaz de Mera disallowed a 2-0 goal scored by Vinícius, a substitute, and that the referee did not see the hair-pulling, which the VAR did see.

Vinícius apologised on social media for the hair-pulling, according to La Vanguardia, but later shared an Instagram story calling the refereeing system 'mafia' and listing other occasions when he was punished and other players were not. Movistar images show him pushing a LaLiga employee, the operator of the pitchside VAR monitor, as he left the pitch. La Vanguardia reports that he is exposed to a two-to-three-match suspension for that incident.

Tebas and the LaLiga front

El Mundo reports that the club has focused its attention on Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga and vice-president of the Spanish Football Federation. The club calls him 'one of the culprits' and believes his inaction in the Negreira case shows little interest in resolving it. The relationship between Florentino Pérez and Tebas is poor, and the two have traded indirect messages at each other's public appearances. The club also considers LaLiga as responsible as the Comité Técnico de Árbitros for the errors it says were committed against the team, a point Mourinho repeated at the press conference after the derby.

The Negreira case and the 2004 penalty

Enríquez Negreira, vice-president of the CTA, is accused of favouring FC Barcelona. El Confidencial argues that the Negreira case is being used by Real Madrid to create tension against referees. In an interview with As, former referee Pedro Tristante Oliva said that Negreira did have influence over the competition.

Negreira did have influence, of course he did. In 90% of cases he was the one who told us at the end of the season whether you had done well or badly.

Tristante refereed the 2004 Real Madrid-Valencia match in which Carlos Marchena was given a last-minute penalty for holding Raúl inside the area, a decision that ended 1-1 and became known as the 'ushiro nage'. He said he was left off the lists published on 30 June that year and never felt supported by the CTA. Two days after the match, he said he overheard Negreira tell Sánchez Arminio that the computer which designated referees automatically had to be removed, and he took it as a sign he would be made a scapegoat.

Mourinho's approach and the week ahead

At the start, Mourinho said he would not talk about referees and trusted Spanish refereeing, but La Vanguardia reports that he has since moved to placing referees in the spotlight. Gerard Romero, speaking on the program Jijantes, claimed that Mourinho and his coaching staff have shown players a 30-minute video about the referee before matches for the last two matchdays. The video, according to Romero, presents the referee's style and explains how to pressure him, and Romero said he heard this from Madrid colleagues. None of the articles reports a confirmation from the club. Mourinho is due back in the press room at Rome's Olímpico on Tuesday, 13 October, before the Champions League match against Roma on Wednesday, 14 October at 21.00. After training at Valdebebas on Saturday, the next league match is against Sevilla at the Bernabéu, and the Clásico follows. La Vanguardia says the CTA is worried that each match can now become a trial of the referee, and a truce looks unlikely.