Jose Mourinho launches scathing attack on refereeing after Real Madrid loss: “Congratulations to the Committee”

Jose Mourinho launches scathing attack on refereeing after Real Madrid loss: “Congratulations to the Committee” Real Madrid suffered their second defeat of the La Liga campaign today as Atletico Madrid beat them 2-1 in the first Madrid derby of the season . With this loss, the Merengues are already six points behind the league leaders FC Barcelona, with only seven games played in the league so far. As has been the case for most of their away games, Los Blancos again left a lot to be desired with their performance. However, one can reasonably argue that the referee, Ortiz Arias, also played a significant part in altering the course of the match in favor of the hosts. While there were several other minor contentious refereeing decisions as well, three decisions stood out in particular during this game, and all three of them went against Real Madrid. First, Cuti Romero tackled and stomped on Jude Bellingham’s leg, and the referee awarded the Englishman with a yellow card before consulting VAR and showing the card to Romero, even though it could easily have been a red for the Argentine. Only a few seconds later, Kang-In Lee went into a challenge on Federico Valverde with his studs up, but this time, the referee did not even show a yellow card. Then, a few minutes into the second half, Arias awarded Atletico a penalty and showed Dean Huijsen a yellow card for a foul inside the box, but this card was converted into a red after another VAR intervention. These decisions, especially the last one, clearly turned the game in favor of the hosts. Naturally, Jose Mourinho was not too pleased with the referee’s performance, and as MARCA has noted, took some direct jabs at the field and VAR official and the refereeing committee: “Yes, we could have saved ourselves the press conference because the story of the match is right here. Those are two clear red cards. We had a lot of difficulties afterwards with one player fewer, and all I can do is hug my players, who produced a first half full of class and personality. The ones who should be happy, besides Atlético, are the Refereeing Committee. Everything has been very strange. A week earlier, we already knew who the referee was, when normally it is announced 24 hours beforehand. Then the referee is 41 years old and is not an international referee, so he will not be a great referee. Then the poor man couldn’t cope with the pressure. And then there was Mr Trujillo, who was the VAR and called him over for the first red card, and I think not for the second, and who has a rich and tremendous history with Madrid. Just last year: Osasuna, Real, Girona… Poor referee, who has only officiated small matches, and the VAR official, who has a great history with Madrid. There is no pressure in Las Rozas. Or is there? Congratulations to the Committee.” Meanwhile, the Portuguese coach refrained from giving a clear judgment on Huijsen’s card and the penalty: “I confess that I haven’t seen it yet, and I was very far away. I don’t know. They tell me that the foul starts outside the box, and if that is the case, it is a foul and a red card and it’s 0-0. If it is inside and there is an obvious attempt to push, it would be a red card, but you saw the second half. In the first half, it was a derby with eleven against nine, and in the second, eleven against ten. Imagine how an eleven-against-nine match ends.” Despite the increased deficit in La Liga, the Real Madrid coach was clear that the team will continue fighting, while raising still more points about the referee’s unfair conduct: “It is obvious that we want to have more points and be top. But this isn’t about how it starts; it’s about how it finishes. I have already gone into this a lot, but some things we have seen, such as the disallowed goal against Osasuna, are laughable; the Barcelona penalty is laughable… I thought I was coming back to a different league from the one I had left. I was told I wasn’t, and they explained why, but we are going to fight. My players leave sad, but with a hug from their manager. If we want to remember the Elche match, Diomande’s first yellow card was not normal. The first half was very difficult; it could have been nine against eleven, and the second half ended up being ten against eleven for them, but I liked my team’s determination more.” The Portuguese coach had doubts that this could have been a pre-planned conspiracy to hurt his team: “If they let us compete on an equal footing, we will do it. I don’t want to say that this was planned; I want to believe that they made mistakes. The Committee made a mistake by appointing a 41-year-old and another official who has a history against Real Madrid… Things happen in this stadium that are not normal. The disallowed goal against Osasuna is a joke, what happened in San Sebastián…” There is no doubt that Real Madrid have a long way to go to improve their performances to compete with the top teams, even only in Spain. However, there have been far too many occasions when they have been unfairly treated by the referees, and hopefully, RFEF and La Liga will take steps to fix this problem as soon as possible.