Former La Liga referee Javier Estrada Fernández recalled an experience from the early days of his career and talked about the impact he suffered after officiating a Real Madrid match in an interview with Camel Live. The video was released two weeks ago and has sparked discussions again on social platforms recently.
Estrada served as a La Liga referee from 2009 to 2021. He has mentioned this past event on different occasions before, and this time, he detailed the relevant details again on his own channel.
When talking about a previous match between Real Madrid and Celta Vigo where two Real Madrid players were sent off, he said it reminded him of what happened in 2009: “On that occasion, I sent off Ronaldo during the game and wrote it in the referee's report. After that, I didn't get to officiate another Real Madrid match for almost two years. Such situations happen repeatedly.”
This incident occurred in the 13th round of the 2009-10 season, when Real Madrid hosted Almería. In the closing stages of the game, Ronaldo first received a yellow card for taking off his shirt to celebrate a goal, and then got a second yellow card and was sent off for a foul on Juanma Ortiz. After the game, he was suspended for one match.
He recalled that after sending off Ronaldo in that game, he first received affirmation from the match observer: “He said to me: 'Young man, you refereed very well.' But less than ten minutes after I got home, I received a call from Armando Pérez, who was the president of the Spanish Referees' Committee at that time. The attitude was already very clear—that this matter was 'unpopular'; and it had already made the front pages of some national sports newspapers at the media level, and he also made me understand that there would be some consequences. Obviously, the consequences did appear, and almost immediately.”
When lamenting that the problem has not been resolved after so many years, he said: “I'm talking about something that happened in 2009, and now it's 2025. This situation is still continuing, which is indeed worthy of reflection. There is a dark corner in football that people are unwilling to face. I think someone needs to hit the brakes now, so that everyone can focus on playing football instead of letting some people use these things to seek personal interests.”
After that, Estrada did not officiate any Real Madrid matches for the rest of the season, and did not return to the Bernabéu to referee for three full seasons.
Earlier, Estrada also commented on the Negreira case, emphasizing that different issues should be distinguished: "Everyone must understand that Negreira is a problem that fully deserves to be reported, and 'power lobbying' is another matter.
Unfortunately, referees have long been dependent on the football association, as if their hands and feet are tied."
