The referees stand firm! The CTA defends Munuera Montero after the Madrid siege

The Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) came out in defense of José Luis Munuera Montero after the controversy sparked by Jude Bellingham's expulsion in the Osasuna-Real Madrid (1-1), along with other plays in which the 'White House' claims to have been harmed by the Andalusian referee. In addition to the usual complaints from the official 'merengue' channel, 'RMTV', hundreds of messages on social media targeted the main referee of the match played in Pamplona.

Well, in the face of the siege from the 'cavern' and the entire media apparatus controlled by Florentino Pérez, the entire refereeing collective has rallied around Munuera Montero, who along with VAR made the right calls in all the controversies that ended up harming the team led by Carlo Ancelotti at El Sadar. The referee was right to send off Bellingham for insulting him, as well as to sanction a clear penalty by Eduardo Camavinga on Ante Budimir due to a stomp. There was also justice in the uncalled penalties on Vinicius Jr. and Bellingham himself, along with a handball inside the area by Catena, as none of these actions warranted sanctions against the 'rojillos'.

The full statement from the CTA in support of Munuera Montero

"The professional referees wish to express our absolute rejection of the attacks and threats that our colleague José Luis Munuera Montero is receiving through social media, which affect him personally as well as his family environment," says the CTA's statement in its first segment. In this regard, the refereeing collective adds:

"These attacks add to the hate and verbal violence with which we have to perform our professional work every weekend and which in the grassroots categories often turns into, even more regrettably, physical violence in many more cases," the CTA's message specifies. On Monday, a delegation from the Madrid board visited the facilities in Las Rozas to meet with the CTA, a cordial meeting where the club reiterated a "negative bias" from the referees of LaLiga.

Valdano's 'blow' to Madrid for their endless whining

In this regard, one of the former players and ex-coaches of Madrid, Jorge Valdano, was blunt in criticizing the club and the team's stance regarding the refereeing controversies. In an interview for 'Movistar', the Argentine stated that Munuera Montero "got the big decisions right", despite being unable to avoid other controversies that complicated the match more than necessary.

Furthermore, Valdano was clear in stating that "players should be given no excuses, not provided with them. It feels like everything that isn't winning has a responsible party that isn't the team and I don't think that's the healthiest thing for a club". Similarly, the also former executive of the 'White House' believes there is an "overreaction from the club" reflected in the controversial letter published a couple of weeks ago, after the match against Espanyol.