Real Madrid’s derby defeat to Atletico has ignited a firestorm far beyond the touchline, with the club’s own television channel launching one of its fiercest attacks yet on Spanish refereeing.
A 2-1 loss to their city rivals would have been painful enough. The manner of it turned anger into open revolt.
Huijsen’s Red Card Lights the Fuse
The match swung on a late flashpoint. Dean Huijsen brought down Giuliano Simeone in the box, conceded a penalty and was sent off. Atletico converted, Madrid’s resistance broke, and the derby slipped away.
For most clubs, the debate would start and end with that incident. For Real Madrid TV, it was only the final act in what they painted as a rigged script.
Their fury went back to the first half, to challenges they believe changed the entire landscape of the game long before Huijsen’s dismissal.
“They Should Have Been Down to Nine”
On the club’s official channel, pundits zeroed in on two names: Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in.
The broadcaster argued that both Atletico players should have seen red well before the decisive penalty, insisting that Madrid had been forced to play a different sport to their rivals. Those incidents, unpunished by referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias, became the central evidence in a broader accusation: that Real Madrid are being refereed to a different standard this season.
Real Madrid TV did not tiptoe around the issue. They claimed the outcome had been “heavily manipulated” by those decisions and went as far as to question whether the competition itself still held any credibility for their supporters.
“We don’t know what would have happened if Atletico had been reduced to nine players. I’m sure many Madrid fans are eager to get up and walk away from this competition,” the channel raged, as quoted by Mundo Deportivo. “It makes you want to get up and walk away. Now they’ve tightened the screws a little more. Before, they tried to cover it up; now they don’t.”
The message was unmistakable: this was not just a bad night, but the latest chapter in a season-long grievance.
Personal Blast at the Referee
Once the anger started rolling, it didn’t stop at generalities.
Real Madrid TV turned directly on Ortiz Arias, dragging in a recent episode away from the derby to question his impartiality. “[Miguel Angel] Ortiz Arias was hanging out with Barcelona players a few weeks ago, and now this,” the broadcast continued. “It’s all sickening. They don’t care if the sh*t spills over into [Javier] Tebas’s La Liga. What’s happened this season has already pushed everyone over the edge.”
The insinuation was clear: the referee’s social circle and recent behaviour were being held up as symbols of a system that, in their eyes, has lost any pretence of neutrality.
The tone hardened again when the channel revisited a challenge by Lee Kang-in on Fede Valverde. The tackle, and the referee’s reaction to Valverde’s protests, became another pillar in their case.
“All that’s missing is a directive allowing Madrid’s rivals to take the field armed with revolvers,” the network claimed. “When Lee Kang-in tackled Fede, and he stood up to protest, the referee addressed Valverde with a cocky, thuggish attitude.”
The language was inflammatory, but it reflected a club media arm that no longer wants to hint at bias – it wants to shout it.
“They Don’t Let Them Compete”
From there, the criticism moved beyond one referee, one match, even one season.
Real Madrid TV framed the derby as proof of a structural problem, arguing that La Liga and the RFEF have created an environment in which Madrid are officiated under a harsher, almost punitive, standard.
“There’s a different standard when it comes to Madrid. They don’t let them compete. But these are the plans of La Liga and the RFEF,” the broadcaster insisted, turning what might have been a post-match rant into an accusation of systemic agenda.
The penalty that sealed the defeat only deepened that belief. While Huijsen walked for his foul on Simeone, the channel openly doubted that the same punishment would ever be applied at the other end of the pitch.
“Given how the refereeing has gone, I doubt they would have sent off an Atletico player in the other penalty area, the way they did with Huijsen. The football debate doesn’t make sense.”
In their view, once the playing field is tilted, there is no tactical argument left to have.
Debate That Won’t Die Down
The fallout from this broadcast will not be confined to Real Madrid’s fanbase. In a league already consumed by weekly VAR rows and conspiracies, the club’s own media arm has poured fuel on a fire that was already raging.
Referees in Spain operate under intense scrutiny at the best of times. After a night like this, every decision in every Madrid match will be pored over with even more suspicion, every appointment questioned, every mistake framed as part of a pattern rather than a human error.
On the grass, though, the reality for Carlo Ancelotti’s squad is more prosaic. They have lost a derby, they have dropped points, and they will now be without the suspended Huijsen as they try to steady a shaken back line.
The cameras will keep circling around the officials. The noise will keep growing. The question is whether Real Madrid can shut it out long enough to keep their season on track while their own channel insists the competition itself is stacked against them.
