Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has declared that he is not free to say what he thinks about referees, as he also remarked following their match against Sevilla on Saturday.
The refereeing in Spain was the major theme chosen by the Madrid-based media for both Ancelotti and Kepa Arrizabalaga before him, who began to tire of so many questions about the officiating.
Ancelotti was asked if he had confidence in the referees, and whether he believed that Real Madrid TV was doing the right thing in pressuring referees by releasing videos claiming that the referees were biased against Los Blancos.
“I have confidence in the referees… sometimes a little more and other times less. If you ask me about the videos, you know better than me what freedom of expression is. Everyone has their right. I have to leave the refereeing work to the referees and the truth is that it is a special moment in La Liga, we all know why that is, until that is clarified there will always be this problem.”
Presumably, Ancelotti is referring to the Negreira case, where Barcelona are accused of bribery and sporting corruption, but are yet to be found guilty of anything.
He was again asked what he thought about referees, and whether he thought any referee he had dealt with during his four and a half years in charge of Los Blancos went into games predisposed to harm Real Madrid.
“You know that I don’t have the freedom of expression to talk about the referees. If I say what I think they suspend me and what I want is to work. If I say what I think, they suspend me. In this sense I don’t have freedom… so I can’t answer this question.”
He was also asked if he did have freedom to talk about referees in Europe.
“There are many things that we have to evaluate. The Spanish referee who referees in Spain… referees in Spain. The English referee does not care what they say to him because he returns to England. It is a different pressure, the referees in Europe do not have the same pressure.”
A major part of the reason for that pressure is the fact that the media from both sides of the Real Madrid-Barcelona divide place so much emphasis on officiating. As Ramon Besa mentioned recently, in Spain there is ‘journalism from the trenches’, where each outlet views events through a lens. It means that minor calls are blown into major controversy, and thus affects the perception of refereeing in Spain, no matter what the standard actually is.
“You know that I don’t have the freedom of expression to talk about the referees. If I say what I think they suspend me and what I want is to work. If I say what I think, they suspend me. In this sense I don’t have freedom… so I can’t answer this question.”
Welcome to “democracy”.
Youre free to say whatever you want as long as you agree with us.