The silence of Real Madrid contrasts with the thunderous noise that surrounds everything that happened in the match against Almería and the visits by Hernández Maeso to the VAR to answer the calls from Hernández Hernández, one of the referees considered “anti-Madrid” by the club’s propaganda apparatus, its official channel, which dedicated one of its controversial videos.
Once again the only more or less institutional statement regarding the white entity is the one made by Carlo Ancelotti, who expressed himself at a press conference admitting the commotion by declaring: “I understand Almería’s anger. I perfectly understand“. Although later he added his particular vision of the controversial plays: “I think all three have been quite clear decisions.” The white locker room is silent in response and from the box they look elsewhere. There is no planned position on this matter. What yes What is striking is the message that some journalists are displaying in the media about the reputational damage that this scandal generates for Real Madrid as an entity. But no one has commented on the embarrassment of the actions of their official television channel pointing out the referees in the witch hunt initiated by Real Madrid Television.
Three controversies, one certainty and “twenty-odd cameras”
And that’s where everything squeaks. In the first play, in which Hernández Maeso points out penalty from the Brazilian Kaiky, the hand is as involuntary as it is clear, as much or less than the foul committed in the same action by Rudiger jumping supported by an Almería defender. Something that Hernández Hernández did not evaluate in the VAR despite the impact he had on the play.
In the second a goal by Sergio Arribas was annulled due to a previous foul by the Senegalese Dion Lopy to Jude Bellingham at the beginning of the play. Here there is no doubt about the lack, what is powerfully striking is that Hernández Maeso, who is five feet away from the match between Lopy and Bellingham, did not point it out, despite clearly seeing that the defender arrived late and stepped on the Englishman. This is what is most surprising in a play that offers few doubts.
While in the last one, in which finally validates the goal of the Brazilian Vinicius when the referee had signaled a handball live. First of all, it is strange that the decision is changed when it is a play of interpretation by the referee and also there is no shot in which it is clear if the ball hits him on the shoulder or arm. Something that surprised Jaume Roures himself, founder of Mediapro, a company with which the RFEF has signed a contract for the VAR, who pointed out: “What I want to emphasize is that the images of Vinicius’ goal, in which you can see that hit him in the arm and there is no debate, they were bad shots. The repetition from a frontal shot makes it clear that he hit it with his arm.
Roures himself commented that “In a Real Madrid match there must be around twenty-something cameras. Images from all cameras are sent. Then, the VAR, the operators seen on the screen and the referees decide how to use them. All signals are sent live. There is no editing. “Just as all cameras capture images, those images reach the VAR.”
The VAR audios do not shed much light on the matter, beyond the interpretations of the plays by Hernández Hernández, one of the referees to whom Real Madrid TV dedicated a video for his “anti-Madrid” decisions. A condition that is now called into question after this friendly refereeing and his interventions in the game advising Hernández Maeso who was refereeing his first game against Real Madrid.
Is this how Madrid wins? and the conspiracies
The scandal has had tremendous coverage in the media, with those from Andalusia and Almeria being the most incisive. In the ‘Diario de Almería’ his sports chief, Paco Gregorio, noted in his chronicle: “Almería was the victim at the Santiago Bernabéu of one of the biggest referee robberies in memory, and there have been quite a few in the white temple. The honest match that Garitano’s team was playing was nipped in the bud by the referee team from the VOR room, crookedly interpreting all the actions against the Indálic interests (…) All of this with a 13-minute discount to facilitate the 3 -2 finish for Carvajal. In the paper version the headline that illustrated the match photo was “A great gentleman”, with the subtitle “A humble but proud Almería is robbed at gunpoint at the Bernabéu”.
While the Ideal newspaper asked: “Is this how Madrid wins?” later stating that “Almería suffers the biggest robbery in its history, with two goals against ‘marked’ by the VAR and the 1-3 also annulled by the VAR; the discount, premeditated, until it reached 3-2 (…) Of shame, for having left the field of play when Hernández Maeso ‘decreed’ that the winner at the Bernabéu was not going to be any other team than the owner of the place where the match was played.”
The day concluded with the echoes of the statements about what happened from Seville by Xavi Hernández, Barcelona coach, who has paid more than 7.5 million euros to the vice president of referees for 18 years to “influence” the arbitrations. “It is going to be very difficult to win this League. There are things that don’t add up to me. Everyone has seen what happened at the Bernabéu. “In any case, we will continue fighting.”
The disastrous refereeing of Hernández Maeso and the obtuse use of VAR in matches continues to fuel this conspiracy atmosphere in which football has been moving for a long time. Something to which the so-called ‘big’ teams contribute interestedly by putting more pressure either with the payments to Enríquez Negreira of Barça, the videos of Real Madrid Television pointing out specific referees or the communications of the Athletic against the referees. Coincidentally, the three teams with the most power and weight compared to the rest of the clubs that accept with resignation the abuses they suffer against the three aircraft carriers of the League.
