Before starting, I want to point out that this text is not intended to defend or attack Real Madrid, I just want to try to explain the feelings that the white team produces for its faithful followers and for its recalcitrant opponents.
On Wednesday, the referee who whistled the Qatar 2022 World Cup Final, Szymon Marciniak, made a serious error in the 103rd minute by blowing an offside signal signaled by his assistant without letting the play finish. With the whistle, the play was declared dead and the Madrid players stood still when the ball fell to Matthijs de Ligt and he kicked it into the net. Some Bayern Munich players celebrated tepidly, but the majority turned to the referee with fury to demand the dispossession of which they felt they had been subjected.
Masks must be removed. De Ligt already knew the play was dead when he kicked the ball on goal. In fact, Thomas Müller’s previous pass was already made with the play dead, even that header was no longer valid. The controversy exists because there is an error when marking the offside. This has made social networks turn to attack Madrid or, failing that, to defend it. The newspaper Sport, on its website, shamefully, titled: “Robbery at the Bernabéu! Legal goal disallowed for Bayern in the last minute”, a completely disproportionate headline because, first, there is no goal because the play never ended and, second, because it could not be confirmed whether or not the play was offside. Several accounts in X indicated, based on their vectors, that there was an illegal position; The English version of Bein Sport, on the other hand, with technology, showed that it was. It is irrelevant. The play never ended.
The point is that, it is true, Madrid has seen benefits from refereeing mistakes, something that causes a large group of anti-Madrid fans to feel an exacerbated animosity that does not allow them to grant any positive attribute to the team chaired by Florentino Pérez… Florentino, another factor that adds to the case.
The current president of Real Madrid is “responsible” for much of the animosity. The manager came to the club in an election after winning the eighth Orejona, that same summer. Nobody gave him a chance to succeed against Lorenzo Sanz, but a campaign promise, the signing of Luis Figo from Barcelona, detonated hatred – it is a strong word, but real in many Barcelona fans – against Pérez and his Madrid. With bills he created “Los Galacticos” and took Zinedine Zidane, with whom he won the ninth European Cup. He then brought in Ronaldo from Inter, just weeks after he won the World Cup with Brazil. Suddenly, Madrid had 3 Ballon d’Ors “inherited” from other teams and the rivals did not like the situation at all.
After the arrival of David Beckham, Madrid entered a period of lean times, Spanish football became equal – until Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona was born – and Florentino’s whites sank and the president had to leave. In 2009, after Pep Guardiola’s treble, Florentino returned to preside over the club and told the world that he could do it all: he signed Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso, and in 2010 he hired José Mourinho (treble champion with Inter) with the sole intention of ending Lionel Messi’s Barcelona, and, with a football that was not truly popular, he achieved it.
Florentino endured the departures of all those figures and, 15 years later, he can boast 5 Orejonas and, since Wednesday, one more Final.
To achieve this, he had to invest a lot of money, turn a deaf ear to all the accusations of corruption towards UEFA, the RFEF, LaLiga, the referees… and the government of the Community of Madrid, Spain, Europe and other countries. , like Mexico itself, and his company, ACS, a construction company with businesses in the country. Many accusations that make absolutely all the sense in the world, but have never been properly proven nor have any been tried on any of them.
In the end, everything that happens with Real Madrid is relevant. If he loses, he is the (literal) target of everyone’s ridicule. It pleases all those who are not from Madrid. If you win, how is always important: if there is a referee error, bad; if he plays defensively, bad; if he scores “ugly” goals, bad; If only foreigners play, bad; Now there are even unfortunate memes about the number of black players, as if that were bad. They have just remodeled the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and there are photos showing parts of the old structure accompanied by extremely acidic criticism to discredit the work that can be seen outdoors, in stands, a retractable roof and state-of-the-art screens.
Back to the reason for this column, Madrid was better than Bayern Munich collectively and individually. At the Bernabéu, he had a goal disallowed – correctly due to a foul by Nacho on Joshua Kimmich -, he saw Manuel Neuer sublimely save a goal that had to be pierced several times – although he later botched the tying goal terribly -, he enjoyed a performance of Vinicius Jr.’s madness, and everything went to waste due to an ugly mistake by the referee; That detracted, by decision of their detractors, everything the whites did, not only in that series, but throughout the season.
The conclusion is that nothing needs to be done about the wave of reactions that the Champions League’s top winners with 14 titles will generate. Madrid will continue to be relevant, for better or worse, and its fans and detractors will have to live with that, also for better or worse.
