Real Madrid are turning to FIFA to grieve the current refereeing in Spanish football following another controversial decision that went against the Spanish giants.
A red card to Dean Huijsen cast a shadow over Real Madrid’s 2–1 victory against Real Sociedad on Saturday afternoon. The center back was sent off by referee Jesús Gil Manzano in the 32nd minute for taking down Mikel Oyarzabal, who argued he was through on goal before the challenge sent him to ground.
The referee pulled out a red card as Huijsen and Xabi Alonso protested that Éder Militão was alongside Huijsen to provide cover. Alonso went on to further criticize the decision after the game.
Following the match, the club announced on Real Madrid TV, its official channel, that it would be lodging an official complaint with FIFA over the state of refereeing in La Liga.
“Real Madrid is preparing a report with everything that has happened in these first four rounds of La Liga and what happened last season,” the announcement said.
“A dossier, that report, which is going to be submitted to FIFA so that they take good note of what is happening in Spanish football with regard to refereeing.”
The report is the latest escalation between Spanish referees and Real Madrid. The club was particularly outspoken last season regarding several decisions that negatively impacted Los Blancos’ fight for the La Liga title.
Real Madrid even went as far as to submit a formal complaint to the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) last February. The report came after their 1–0 defeat to Espanyol in which referee Alejandro Muniz Ruiz only showed a yellow card to Carlos Romero—who went on to score the match-winner—for a challenge on Kylian Mbappé.
Now, it seems the club is ready to bring FIFA into the ongoing battle just four matches into the 2025–26 season and days after the RFEF Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) rolled out the first installment of “Review Time”, a new series that conducts reviews of potential refereeing errors in La Liga, La Liga 2 and Liga F.
The CTA already admitted to wrongfully allowing Ferran Torres’s goal in Barcelona’s La Liga opener in an effort to be more transparent moving forward. Huijsen’s red card will likely be under scrutiny in the next episode of the series.
