Jose Mourinho Backs Real Madrid’s Ruthless Referee Takedown With Printed ‘Evidence’

José Mourinho and Real Madrid let a two-pronged assault on the officials after Sunday’s 2–1 loss to Atlético Madrid. Not even an hour after the humbling derby defeat did the club release an official statement, condemning the “terrible refereeing” of Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias in Sunday’s heated affair.

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Los Blancos made the short trip to the Metropolitano on Sunday for the first Madrid derby of the season and nothing went as planned for Mourinho’s men. They were held quiet in the first half and then quickly went down a man in the second after Dean Huijsen was sent off for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity on Giuliano Simeone.

What made the match even more frustrating for Real Madrid were two controversial refereeing decisions that went against the visitors, highlighted in a scathing statement from the team after the final whistle.

“Real Madrid lost a derby at the Metropolitano in a match marked by the terrible refereeing of Ortiz Arias, who did not expel Cuti Romero in the first half for stepping on [Jude] Bellingham’s knee (despite the fact that he went to see the play at the monitor) nor Lee Kang-in for stepping on [Federico] Valverde’s left ankle,” the statement said.

“Both decisions marked the match, which was resolved in the second half in favor of Atlético.”

A Closer Look at Both Decisions

Indeed, there were two moments when Atlético Madrid could have been the team down a man-or two-in Sunday’s derby. The first came in the 35th minute, when Bellingham and Cristian Romero collided going for a loose ball.

The Real Madrid midfielder got there first and slid into a challenge before the Argentine arrived late. Romero went for the ball, but then stamped on Bellingham’s knee in his follow through. Referee Ortiz Arias stunningly gave Bellingham a yellow card for the incident before the VAR Daniel Jesús Trujillo Suárez called him to the monitor to review the decision.

Ortiz Arias then came back to the pitch, rescinded Bellingham’s yellow card and showed the caution instead to Romero. Real Madrid reiterate in their statement that the defender should have been sent off for “nailing his cleats in [Bellingham’s] left knee.”

The more controversial decision came just nine minutes later when Lee Kang-in dug his studs into Valverde’s ankle with a reckless and dangerous challenge that came far from the ball. Referee Ortiz Arias did not even hand out a yellow card, let alone a red, for the tackle.

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The VAR also did not call the on-field official to the monitor to review the play.

Mourinho Shreds the Refereeing Performance

It’s been a season of a quite mellow Mourinho so far, but the boss fell back into old habits when he arrived to his postgame press conference with printed-out images of both challenges. He also let it rip, directly calling out the referees in a tirade club president Florentino Pérez would be proud of.

“We could skip the press conference because the story of the match is here,” Mourinho said as he held up the photos. “They were two clear red cards. The difficulties we had playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what it would have been like for 50 minutes with 11 against nine.

“It was all very strange. The first thing is that a week before the match, it was already known who the referee would be, when, as I’ve been told, it should be announced 24 hours before. A week before, it was already known who the referee was.

“Then, it’s a 41-year-old referee who isn’t even international, and it’s not because he’s a great referee. The poor guy came here and couldn’t handle the pressure, which I call the pressure of the ’80s, something you rarely see today. Then there’s Mr. Trujillo, who was on VAR. He called him for the first red card, and I think he didn’t call him for the second, which was even clearer than the first.

“If you can say that the poor referee is inexperienced and not equipped to handle a derby, then this gentleman [Trujillo on VAR] doesn’t have any pressure because in Las Rozas there is no pressure. Or maybe there is pressure and we just don’t know about it.”

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This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 2:25 PM.