Real Madrid TV Accuses Referee Bias After Derby Defeat

The Madrid derby ended 2-1 to Atletico on the pitch. Off it, the real explosion came from the studios of Real Madrid TV.

A heated, scrappy game swung decisively in the second half when Dean Huijsen conceded a penalty for a foul on Giuliano Simeone and was shown a red card. That moment killed Madrid’s hopes of rescuing the match. It did not, however, explain the level of rage that poured out from the club’s official channel once the final whistle went.

The anger had been building long before Huijsen walked.

First-half flashpoints light the fuse

Real Madrid TV fixed its crosshairs on the opening 45 minutes, insisting Atletico should have been reduced to nine men. The broadcaster argued that Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in both committed challenges worthy of dismissal, and that the referee’s failure to act shaped everything that followed.

Those incidents became the spine of the post-match coverage. Every replay, every angle, fed into a single narrative: this was not just a bad night of officiating; this was manipulation.

“We don’t know what would have happened if Atletico had been reduced to nine players. I’m sure many Madrid fans are eager to get up and walk away from this competition,” the channel said, quoted by Mundo Deportivo. “It makes you want to get up and walk away. Now they’ve tightened the screws a little more. Before, they tried to cover it up; now they don’t.”

The message was unmistakable. This was not framed as an isolated grievance, but as another chapter in what the club’s media arm portrays as a season-long pattern.

Personal attack on the referee

The criticism soon moved from decisions to the man making them.

Real Madrid TV singled out referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias, dragging in his recent off-field presence around Barcelona players as supposed evidence of bias.

“[Miguel Angel] Ortiz Arias was hanging out with Barcelona players a few weeks ago, and now this,” the channel thundered. “It’s all sickening. They don’t care if the sh*t spills over into [Javier] Tebas’s La Liga. What’s happened this season has already pushed everyone over the edge.”

The language was raw, emotional and deliberately confrontational. This was not the measured tone of a club trying to lower the temperature around referees. It was gasoline on an already raging fire.

Claims of systemic bias

From there, the rhetoric only escalated.

According to the club’s channel, this is no longer about a handful of controversial calls. It is about a system stacked against Real Madrid, a competition in which, in their view, the rules are applied differently depending on the badge.

“All that’s missing is a directive allowing Madrid’s rivals to take the field armed with revolvers,” the broadcaster claimed. The coverage also highlighted a tackle by Lee Kang-in on Fede Valverde, focusing not just on the challenge but on the referee’s reaction to Madrid’s midfielder.

“When Lee Kang-in tackled Fede, and he stood up to protest, the referee addressed Valverde with a cocky, thuggish attitude,” the channel alleged.

The accusations went beyond one match and straight at the institutions themselves.

“There’s a different standard when it comes to Madrid. They don’t let them compete. But these are the plans of La Liga and the RFEF,” the broadcaster insisted, hammering home the idea of a coordinated agenda.

The penalty that broke the derby

All of this framed the decisive incident with Huijsen in even harsher light.

The young defender’s foul on Giuliano Simeone brought a penalty and a red card, a double punishment that left Madrid chasing a lost cause. For Real Madrid TV, that decision was not just harsh; it was emblematic.

“Given how the refereeing has gone, I doubt they would have sent off an Atletico player in the other penalty area, the way they did with Huijsen. The football debate doesn’t make sense,” the channel concluded.

In their telling, the derby was not lost through defensive errors or missed chances, but through an uneven whistle that they believe would never blow the same way for their rivals.

A storm that won’t blow over

The fallout from this broadcast will not be confined to one news cycle. In a season already poisoned by constant rows over VAR, refereeing standards and institutional power, Real Madrid’s official channel has pushed the discourse into even more toxic territory.

The spotlight on Spanish officials, already harsh, now burns even brighter. Every assignment, every decision involving Real Madrid will be dissected through the lens the club’s own media has created.

On the grass, though, the table does not wait for grievances. Carlo Ancelotti’s side must rebuild a backline now missing the suspended Huijsen and somehow shut out the noise generated by their own house.

The derby is gone. The question is whether Real Madrid can still fight for titles while openly claiming a league that “doesn’t let them compete” — or whether that belief becomes the season’s most dangerous opponent.