Real Madrid May Boycot Copa del Rey Final about referee comments | Copa del Rey

Only 24 hours before the kick -off, the Copa del Rey The final did not take the risk of not going after Real Madrid demanded that the Spanish football federation (RFEF) took action after comments from the referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea in the structure of the game.

Although Madrid did not explicitly asked that the civil servant was removed from his duties, nor publicly threatened to boycott the competition, they refused to appear before the press conference before the competition, their training session or the photo ball of the managers and did not postpone a no-show on Saturday evening.

Carlo Ancelotti and Luka Modric were planned to speak to the media with the media in Seville at 7.15 pm, but with journalists who waited for them, they didn’t show. There was no announcement then and Madrid did not explain the decision later.

Nor did they admit that they asked the RFEF to remove the Burgos Bengoetxea or the Video Assistant Referee Pablo González Fuertes. But a statement released an hour later described their comments as “premeditated”, with the help of a “threatening tone” and the demonstration of a “manifestly hostility” Real Madrid.

Quick guide

How do I register for sports -breaking news warning?

Show

• Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play Store on Android by searching for ‘The Guardian’.
• If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you are on the most recent version.
• In the Guardian app on the menu button, tap the bottom right and then go to Settings (the gear icon) and then reports.
• Switch on sports notifications.

The club accused the referees of “the announcement of supposed actions that are far from the principles of equality, objectivity and impartiality that should rule a few hours before a football event, followed by millions of people around the world”.

On Friday evening they considered their position, including the possibility not to stand up. “I am calm; the final will be played,” the federation chairman, Rafael Louzán, was on, just before 9 p.m. On the way to a pre-event dinner shortly thereafter, the president of the referee committee, Luis Medina Cantalejo, said that they worked on the game that continued. Madrid was not present.

If Madrid is not shown, they would be confronted with a year -long ban from the competition and a fine between € 3,000 and € 12,000 (£ 10,200). They have waited eleven years for one classico Final and when it finally came, it was the referee in the spotlight, with another episode in Madrid’s war against officials.

Madrid was made angry by a press conference before the match in which the Burgos Bengoetxea and González Fuertes spoke about the repeated criticism of the club on referees on their TV channel. Pushed centrally and exposed, created protagonists of the preview, both men seemed to have come with a message to deliver 24 hours before the competition.

When asked about the pressure they are, especially from Real Madrid TV, González Fuertes warned about the impact on young officials, and said that stronger actions had to be taken. In the meantime, the Burgos Bengoetxea cried as he told about the impact it had on his children.

“Real Madrid CF regards the public statements made today by the referees appointed for the Copa del Rey final as unacceptable,” the club said in a statement. “These comments made on a premeditation, 24 hours earlier [kick-off and] Against one of the participants in the final, again shows a clear and manifest hostility and hostility against Real Madrid.

“Given the seriousness of what happened, Real Madrid expects that the RFEF and the referee institution will act accordingly, taking the relevant measures to defend the institutions they represent.”

The Burgos Bengoetxea had been visibly upset when he spoke with the media earlier in the day. “When a child goes to school and people tell him that his father is a thief, it is confused,” said the civil servant, broke his voice and apparently close to tears. “The only thing I can do is train my son so that he knows that his father is honorable, shows him what referee is and for everyone to think about where we want to go; I would like you to know, it’s very difficult.”

Pass past newsletter promotion

After the promotion of the newsletter

“More than what is said [in the videos]It is the consequences of what is being said, “said González Fuertes.” We see anonymous people on social media offensive and threatening referees without any control, those who are responsible for the social media of clubs who constantly attack us. The consequences of talking about robberies and the use of bad words that frustration that you create among fans is something that the boys and girls who pick up a whistle to do a child’s play. That is the result of placing a target on the head of a colleague. We are not going to allow it to happen. “

That was the first press conference of the day. The Barcelona press conferences were at 5.15 pm, in which Hansi Flick said: “We need the referees”. Madrid would appear two hours later. But as they had done with the Ballon d’Or ceremony in October, they did not show up and canceled everything. There would be no press conference, no training session and no handshake between the coaches, accompanied by the trophy. The president, Florentino Pérez, had already decided not to attend any of the institutional events.

The RFEF then confirmed that Madrid had told them that they would not participate in prematch activities.

The president of the Javi Tebas competition tweeted: “This is not football, this is about power.” In a message that was clearly focused on Pérez, he wrote: “He does not protest that thin skin. He does not protest, he is pressing. He does not complain, he threatens. He does not disagree, he punishes. He does not want to improve football, he wants his football. And the worst thing is that he does not try this.

Madrid wanted the Federation to remove the Burgoos Bergoetxea from referee -tasks, given his position untenable after the press conference and what they saw as a conflict of interest, but not immediately or publicly demanded that this would happen. The subsequent statement stopped opening that threat.

Instead, their position was expressed by the media close to the club hierarchy, which also leaked the opportunity that they did not come before the game. Carlo Ancelotti would appear at 7.15 pm the local time in the press room in La Cartuja, but nobody came. His team comes to the Cartuja field for a kick-off from 10 p.m. on Saturday evening.