Real Madrid TV reopens Negreira row with fresh refereeing attack before El Clasico

Real Madrid’s official television channel has renewed its criticism of refereeing, comparing decisions involving the two clubs and reviving references to the Negreira case less than 24 hours before Barcelona and Real Madrid meet in El Clasico.

The channel placed refereeing decisions at the centre of its coverage ahead of the match at Camp Nou, highlighting incidents involving red cards, disallowed goals and penalties from meetings between the two sides over the past several years. The claims were reported by Catalan newspaper Sport.

Real Madrid TV began by comparing the number of red cards shown to players from each club since 2000.

“Since 2000, 12 Barcelona players have been sent off, compared with 23 from our side, which is almost double. That is not normal when you watch many of the clips,” the channel said.

It also used a sarcastic and insulting nickname for Barcelona, combining the club’s name with the initials of video assistant referee technology, VAR. The broadcast then referred to incidents involving Sergio Busquets, Gavi and Frenkie de Jong, arguing that some of their challenges should have resulted in dismissals.

The criticism then turned to disallowed goals, with the channel presenting figures it said showed an imbalance in decisions between the clubs.

“Four goals have been disallowed for Barcelona, compared with 20 for Real Madrid. Goals have been wrongly ruled out for us, while goals have been wrongly allowed for them. It is a scandal,” it said.

Real Madrid TV also accused referees of awarding Barcelona goals despite an offside or an earlier infringement, while disallowing Real Madrid goals that the channel considered valid.

Penalties were another focus of the broadcast.

“There have been many penalties that were not given to us, while they award penalties for claims of going down,” the channel said.

It went on to describe refereeing decisions in El Clasico matches as “always going in the same direction”, suggesting there was a recurring pattern that favoured Barcelona.

In one of the most pointed remarks, the channel said: “Watching our videos is bad for the health of Real Madrid fans, given all these abnormal incidents.”

The Negreira case was then brought back into the discussion. The channel said: “They were the ones who paid the money,” referring to payments made by Barcelona to a company linked to Jose Maria Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish referees’ technical committee.

Real Madrid TV ended its report by mocking images showing Barcelona players with referees.

“Jose Mota can make the videos that bring Barcelona players and referees together,” it said, referring to the Spanish comedian.