In this round of La Liga, Atletico Madrid secured a resounding 5-2 victory over Real Madrid.
After the match, despite Real Madrid clearly pointing out four controversial unfavorable refereeing decisions, the Technical Referee Committee (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) rejected all of them and confirmed that the on-field referee Álvaro La Rojas had delivered a "quite excellent" refereeing performance.
The four key controversies raised by Real Madrid include: Renaud Lenglet’s suspected foul play before Atlético Madrid’s first goal; whether Nico González should have been shown a direct red card for his foul on Dani Carvajal; whether Alexander Sørloth should have received a second yellow card and been sent off; and whether Lenglet committed a violation when setting up the defensive wall before Atlético Madrid’s fourth goal. Real Madrid argued that these decisions all influenced the course of the match.
However, after conducting a comprehensive review, the Technical Referee Committee reached a conclusion completely contrary to the club’s view. The committee determined that the on-duty refereeing team had "no substantive errors" in their rulings on all the aforementioned controversial incidents.
At the same time, the authorities revealed for the first time the new guidelines for VAR use this season: the frequency of video intervention will be significantly reduced, and more final decision-making power over penalties will be returned to the on-field referee. VAR will not easily intervene in the game unless there are "clear and obvious errors". The committee also admitted that this new regulation still requires more sufficient and transparent explanations to all clubs, players and the public. Although the Football Federation considers the current overall standard of refereeing work satisfactory, it is evident that this assessment has not been endorsed by all relevant parties—especially some clubs and players.
