Carlo Ancelotti fires back – ‘As far as I’m aware, Real Madrid don’t pressure referees’ | OneFootball

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has claimed that Los Blancos do not try to apply pressure on referees, after a week dominated by their complaints about the officiating. In the lead up to the Madrid derby against rivals Atletico Madrid, it’s a conversation that has dominated the agenda in the Spanish media.

On Thursday, a meeting took place in Madrid between La Liga, the referees, the clubs and the RFEF, in which they tried to work on improvements to the officiating in Spain, but Real Madrid elected not to attend it. After the event, La Liga President Javier Tebas said someone at Real Madrid had ‘lost their head’.

“I wouldn’t like to touch on this topic before such an important match. Tebas can rest assured, no one here has lost their mind. Only an explanation has been requested. To change a system that, from what I hear, no one is happy with. They say that the system favours Madrid, but when Madrid wants to change it, they reject it. That surprises me a bit.”

Ancelotti maintains that Real Madrid are simply asking for an explanation for the decision not to send Carlos Romero off for his challenge against Kylian Mbappe. He confirmed they had not received the VAR audio from the incident.

Photo by JAVIER GANDUL / Diario AS

“No, we have not received anything. I don’t know why they don’t want to send them to us. You’ll have to ask them.”

RFEF President Rafael Louzan later on Thursday commented that he was not sure that Real Madrid would not use the audio from VAR decisions for ‘peversely’, something Ancelotti rejected.

“No idea. We have only requested the audios, nothing more. One play. Not that they reveal a huge secret. We just want to know what happened, there is nothing perverse.”

Atletico Madrid have released a series of tweets accusing Real Madrid of pressuring referees through their TV channel and ‘army of journalists’. Real Madrid TV release a smear report against every referee involved in their games before the match, but Ancelotti claims that the club do not ramp up the pressure on the officials.

“I’m not aware of that. Real Madrid wants to change a system that it doesn’t like.”

Ancelotti asserts that Real Madrid do want to change the system, as per their letter to the RFEF, but the feeling in Spain is that the club’s stance goes beyond just the explanations and changes the Italian manager refers to. In the letter, Los Blancos accuse the refereeing system as deliberately set up to manipulate and harm Real Madrid in games, as well as being corrupt, which has brought a significant and unanimous backlash against them.