After the Anoeta match, where Real Madrid claimed Dean Huijsen’s red card was unfair in their 2–1 win over Real Sociedad, Xabi Alonso went on to clarify his stance on referees and refused to play the nationality card.
The discontent of Madrid has been increasing in recent weeks, and the club is now preparing a dossier on refereeing in La Liga collecting instances from this season and previous seasons to share with FIFA.
Given all the talk of bias and systemic issues pertaining to the Negreira case, the stats of red cards involving Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a host of VAR controversies, Alonso was asked if he felt more comfortable with referees who were from Spain or those who were from Europe.
He answered in a pre-match press conference before Real Madrid’s Champions League opener against Olympique de Marseille.
Xavi Alonso rejects Spanish vs European referee divide
“I feel equally calm with both European refereeing and Spanish refereeing. I have no concerns before the match… neither for tomorrow, nor for next Saturday’s match in the league,” Alonso said.
The manager reiterated that Real Madrid had every right to pursue its dossier. “Defending our interests is legitimate,” he explained.
Alonso also looked back on his previous comments in the heat of the moment, such as his episode in San Sebastián when he told the referee he was “making me think badly.”
He accepted that those comments had come under pressure, but wanted the debate to be over football and not the nationality of officials. “You’re making me think ill of you,” he said that night, comments he now admits were born of frustration and not belief.
Alonso made it clear that it is not about the organization of the referee; it is how a match is officiated, by indicating that a referee in La Liga is not different from a referee in the Champions League.
As Real Madrid continues to push its institutional complaint, Alonso would like to turn the conversation into one positing more transparency, more consistency, and more fairness.
The report being put together suggests that Real Madrid is pushing for more than a post-match complaint process it routinely goes through, but rather a form of systemic acknowledgment for transparency and accountability.
At the same time, the governing body for La Liga has its own initiative: the RFEF is introducing a regulatory framework that offers an explanation of referee decisions in public to help minimize controversy and misunderstanding, an initiative that Alonso has expressed support for.