Real Madrid’s complaint to the Competition Committee against Juan Martínez Munuera, the referee who led Osasuna-Real Madrid on Saturday, for allegedly not reflecting the insults to Vinícius in the minutes, led to a harsh response yesterday of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) with an official statement of support for the Valencian referee. The answer can be understood as an “enough” of the inferences, fed up with Madrid’s continuous complaints against the refereeing collective throughout the season through the club’s official channel, Real Madrid TV, which even before the match broadcasts videos in which he denounces old mistakes by the referee who will referee them and which allegedly harmed his team.
The aforementioned practices have been denounced several times by LaLiga through its president, Javier Tebas, and some clubs, such as Sevilla, have submitted a formal complaint to Competicio, which was dismissed.
Osasuna issued another statement yesterday morning to criticize Madrid and defend its fans. The Navarrese club assures that its audience “for the most part had excellent behavior despite the painful result (2-4)”. And he adds: “Osasuna wishes to clarify that no racist chant was uttered. Likewise, it will demand an immediate rectification from the media that have offered information that does not conform to reality and will file a complaint against those who persist in the fallacy. The club will not tolerate tarnishing the reputation of the fans, which throughout its history has been defined precisely by its anti-racist position”.
In the statement, the Technical Committee of Referees makes it very clear that “it wants to express its total and unconditional support for the referee Juan Martínez Munuera after the unfair accusations launched by Real Madrid in its complaint to the Competition Committee”.
And he continues: “The aforementioned club (Real Madrid) alludes to a series of warnings made by its players about shouts or chants by the public against Vinícius. We must clarify that, once the audios of the match have been reviewed, no indication from Madrid players is heard on this matter nor, after the match, the club representative brought to the referee’s attention any incident related to these shouts or chants, as authorized by article 258, on club delegates, of the RFEF regulations”.
In this sense, the referees’ statement does not agree with what at least one player of the white club, Dani Carvajal, said on the Cope channel that “in a set piece play I told the referee to listen to what they sang because it was very serious in one of the backgrounds, at least by certain fans”.
The CTA insists that “it must be remembered that the referee can only include in the minutes those incidents that occurred before, during and after the match on the field of play or anywhere else in the sports facilities or outside, as long as he has witnessed the facts or that the facts have been observed by any other member of the arbitration team and are directly communicated to him, according to art. 240 of the aforementioned regulation”.
And he continues: “However, Real Madrid is unaware that the match reporting officer, who belongs to the Technical Committee of Referees, did reflect in his report those public incidents that he considered significant. And you can see how the reporting officer signs his report on Sunday, March 17 at 2:43 p.m. These reports are sent to the disciplinary body of the RFEF at the end of each day, as has been the case for several seasons”.
The support for Vinícius in the white dressing room is not as homogeneous as it might seem from Carvajal’s words. Just yesterday, at the national team meeting, Joselu explained that the feeling of the team is to constantly calm Vinícius and ask him “not to leave us with ten. Inside the field it transforms a little. There are obviously ways he can improve, but he’s very young and we all support him for that. He will have to decide how to carry it out.”
Throughout the season, veteran players such as Kroos and Modric have tried to separate Vinícius from the referee and the rivals with whom he is constantly clashing.
