Real Madrid are believed to have met with LaLiga’s refereeing council (CTA) and accused officials of ‘bias’ in the midst of Jude Bellingham’s red card row, according to reports in Spain.
The England international has been at the centre of controversy after he received the straight red card during the Spanish giants’ weekend clash with Osasuna.
Bellingham is believed to have said ‘f*** off’ in the direction of referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero during the 39th minute of Saturday’s stalemate, while Munuera Montero has argued that the 21-year-old actually said ‘f*** you’ to him, earning him the sending-off for foul or abusive language.
The Los Blancos superstar could yet face a ban of up to 12 matches for the incident, which has seen Bellingham passionately defended by his head coach Carlo Ancelotti – and dubbed ‘disrespectful’ by the manager of Real Madrid’s loathed rivals Barcelona, Hansi Flick.
Real Madrid are thought to be so incensed by the decision against their player that reports on Monday suggested that the LaLiga giants are mulling a move away from the Spanish top flight.
But officials from both parties met that day, as per Marca, to discuss the involvement of another of their players – France captain Kylian Mbappe – in a tussle with Espanyol’s Carlos Romero when the two teams met at the start of the month.
Mbappe was brought down in a crunching tackle by the rival player in the 61st minute of their February 1 meeting, but in a move deemed ‘inexplicable’ by Ancelotti after the final whistle, Romero was only handed a yellow card instead of a straight red.
The defender then remained on the pitch to score the 85th-minute winner for his side – and to apologise to Mbappe at full-time for the clumsiness of the challenge.
As per the Spanish outlet, Real Madrid sources shared that ‘the CTA (denied) a negative bias towards Madrid, but the club sees it, and has expressed it as such’.
During the meeting, audio recordings of the match were said to have been reviewed, but despite being presented with evidence by the officiating body, Real Madrid are thought to have been left unconvinced.
The club are believed to be keen to advocate for a ‘substantial change’ to refereeing processes in the top flight, including greater transparency in decision making.
According to sources, the CTA are open to making changes – but whether Real Madrid could still be playing in LaLiga by the time they are implemented could be another matter, according to recent reports.
Amid frustrations with refereeing decisions, the club are alleged to be considering a move to either Serie A, Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga – Italy, France and Germany’s respective top divisions – to solve their issues.
However, any potential change of league for Madrid would first have to be approved by FIFA and the respective league that they would ask to join. They would also need approval from UEFA to change leagues.
Bellingham, for his part, is thought to be optimistic about avoiding a potential lengthy ban, as he shared his thoughts on the incident on social media.
‘Enough said about the misunderstanding,’ Bellingham wrote in a message to supporters. ‘Just wanted to apologise again for leaving my teammates in such a tough position and thank the fans for their support and understanding.
‘See you on Wednesday at home.’
The player may find consolation in a decision meted out to his compatriot Mason Greenwood last season, which saw a red card handed to the former Manchester United academy star during his stint at Getafe overturned on appeal.
Greenwood was sent off by Jorge Figueroa Vasquez in a fiery 2-0 defeat by Rayo Vallecano in January 2024, with the match official claiming the Marseille forward shouted ‘f*** you’ at him.
However, Getafe chose to appeal the decision at the time after believing he had not been venting his frustrations at the referee, but instead at himself by saying ‘f*** sake!’.
The Spanish FA then overturned the decision after finding that Greenwood had in fact sworn over the amount of times he had been fouled, rather than aiming a deliberate X-rated remark directly at Vasquez.
‘The task of this disciplinary body is not to re-referee the matches, without determining, where appropriate, the existence of a manifest material error in the referee’s description of the action,’ the Spanish FA said.
‘The repeated viewing of the images, in fact, has allowed this Committee to conclude, beyond any doubt, that the action that led to the expulsion did not occur as described by the referee and, ultimately, prove the material error manifest in the referee’s report.
‘These images demonstrate that the player actually said ‘One, two, three, four, f***.’