“Going to destroy football” – Real Betis director criticises Real Madrid referee response | OneFootball

Real Madrid are continuing their fierce battle against the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), following last weekend’s controversial defeat to Espanyol. They sent a strongly-worded statement to the Spanish Football Federation earlier in the week, in which they called the refereeing system “discredited” and “corrupted”. Furthermore, they have chosen to boycott Thursday’s meeting at the Federation’s offices.

Many prominent figures across Spanish football have spoken on this matter in the last couple of days, and the latest to go so has been Real Betis sporting director Angel Haro, as per Marca.

“Tomorrow we will be there in Madrid (for the meeting), and of course I do not share Real Madrid’s statement. In their expressions I think that unnecessary pressure is put on the refereeing collective, something that he had already been doing through the different videos (with Real Madrid TV). I think there are things to improve, but it must be done from a serene dialogue where there is no action in front of the gallery or in a populist way.

Real Madrid will boycott Thursday’s meeting at the Spanish Football Federation amid their ongoing dispute with the Technical Committee of Referees (Photo by Relevo / AFP)

“I think that all of us who are involved in this activity have to be honest – the refereeing collective, the federation and the clubs, but those statements certainly do not help. What’s more, also from my point of view, the Spanish Football Federation has been lukewarm. Betis have rarely issued statements and the statements have always been for specific issues or for mistakes that at some point we have determined to be rude. And you have to remember that when that happened, the Federation has been totally forceful with Betis. It is true that it was another Federation but I think we have to be a little more forceful and not allow this type of statement to be made happily, because if not, we are all going to destroy football.”

It will be interesting to see how Real Madrid move forward in this matter, but for now, they do not look like backing down.