La Liga giant Real Madrid continues to publicly accuse itself of suffering from systemic injustice in refereeing decisions, and has once again focused on the "double standards" in red card rulings—particularly the significant differences when compared with Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.
Citing data, Real Madrid pointed out that since the 21st century, Barcelona’s net red card advantage (calculated as the number of opposition players sent off minus the number of their own players sent off) in La Liga has stood at +62, while Real Madrid’s has conversely stood at -2. This statistic is used as the core argument supporting its analysis of specific controversial decisions this season.
Real Madrid’s official television channel recently released a special feature video, in which the commentary clearly states: “In the six rounds of the league played so far this season, one Real Madrid player was unfairly sent off, one Barcelona player escaped a red card twice, and the most recent case saw Koke’s violent conduct ignored during Atlético Madrid’s match against Rayo Vallecano.”
The so-called "unfair red card" in the video refers to the incident where Jesús was directly sent off against Real Sociedad. Real Madrid TV questioned referee Hill Manzano for showing a direct red card without VAR intervention, even though Jesús was not the last defending player and the action did not deny an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Reports indicate that the Refereeing Technical Committee (CTA) has privately acknowledged that a mistake was made in this decision after the fact.
At the same time, the video accuses Barcelona player Raphinha of escaping a red card on two occasions: the first was a reckless foul on a Mallorca player that went unreviewed by VAR; the second was when he shoved a Getafe player while the ball was out of play last weekend, yet was not shown a second yellow card.
Ahead of this round’s Madrid Derby in La Liga, Real Madrid TV also compared similar fouls by Koke and Vinícius Jr.: During Atlético Madrid’s match against Rayo Vallecano, Koke grabbed the opposing goalkeeper by the neck and threw him to the ground, but was not shown a red card and VAR did not intervene. This stands in stark contrast to the case last season where Vinícius Jr. was sent off after VAR intervention for a "similar action" at the Mestalla Stadium. Real Madrid TV emphasized that the "biased footage" provided by VAR at that time failed to show footage of the goalkeeper’s provocation—a point that “has been confirmed by judicial documents.”
