Atletico Madrid chief reacts to Real Madrid referee complaints
Controversy is never too far away in Spanish football, and the latest big topic is surrounding referees. This has been brought about by Real Madrid, who sent a strong letter to the Spanish Football Federation earlier this week on the back of their controversial defeat to Espanyol last weekend.
Real Madrid were furious at the decision not to send off Carlos Romero for a strong challenge on Kylian Mbappe, and their fury multiplied tenfold when the Espanyol defender scored the winning goal at the Stage Front Stadium. Ultimately, this prompted the latter and statement released by the club.
Many people have had their say on the matter, and as per MD, Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo was also asked for his response when speaking to the media ahead of Tuesday's Copa del Rey quarter-final tie against Getafe. He insisted that the main problem is with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, more so than the referees themselves.
'Everything is conditional. Referees always have controversies. Everything is conditioned in this life, but today we played a very important game and we are here to play with Getafe, not to talk about the referees. Besides, the problem is the VAR.'
Cerezo has regularly been outspoken against VAR over the last 12-18 months, so it is no surprise that he has taken this stance. Real Madrid also do not like the technology at this stage given that they believe that it failed to correct the on-field decision of yellow card for Romero.
It will be very interesting to see how this matter progresses in the coming weeks. There has been significant response from all quarters of Spanish football to this recent matter, and there is no doubt that referees will continue to remain a hot topic of conversation for many years to come.
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