Real Madrid TV, the club’s unofficial mouthpiece, claim there will be 17 referees against Jose Mourinho’s men when they face off Barcelona in El Clasico on Sunday.
The teams meet at Camp Nou after another highly controversial weekend in La Liga with both clubs accused of benefiting from favorable refereeing decisions.
Madrid beat Sevilla 4-1, but lucky referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer missed a first-half incident in which midfielder Arda Güler elbowed the visiting Peque Fernández in the face.
Guler scored the first goal with Sevilla coach Luis García Plaza stating that the referees then chose not to intervene to enable Madrid will remain within striking distance of the Barça leader ahead of their much-anticipated meeting.
Barcelona influenced the referee, says Real Madrid TV
Barca were also caught in a storm 24 hours earlier, during their 5-2 win at Real Betis. The home side had a goal ruled out after Cucho Hernández was adjudged to have handled the ball before Giovani Lo Celso sunk a brilliant volley.
The referee Ricardo de Burgos was initially unaware of Hernández’s foul, but the clamor of the Blaugrana players – led by Pedri and Lamine Yamal – convinced him to hold a conversation with the VAR and the goal was disallowed.
This has led RMTV to claim that the referee on the field was influenced by the Barça players.
They stated on Tuesday: “Real Madrid will have to face 17 referees in the Clásico: the three on the field, the fourth referee, the VAR and his assistant, in addition to the eleven Barcelona players, who are also referees. Against 17 referees it is very complicated.
“The Barça players now decide which plays the VAR reviews and which not, because they are also referees. It is outrageous. In any other league it would have consequences. Sunday is very complicated because of the problems we all know.”
Real Madrid TV rejects Guler’s elbow allegations
Unsurprisingly, RMTV took a different view of the Guler case than most neutral observers and rejected theories that there was not enough dash cam footage of the incident which occurred far from the ball.
They added: “(We are) against everything and against everyone. Against a regime and a media system in which there are synchronized opinions that only talk about an inconclusive play by Güler and Peque, when the player was also caught repeatedly.
“Now they say that images are missing, when we have been reporting to RMTV for years that there are shots that are not shown in the broadcasts and they call us conspirators. An inconclusive work is enough for everything to change.”
The two teams face each other in Champions League games before locking horns at the weekend.
Barca face two-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday before Madrid host RB Leipzig 24 hours later.