The referee of the Madrid derby, in the spotlight: Mourinho dips bread into the committee's failed bet

The performance of Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias in the Madrid derby will have consequences. The choice of a referee born in Madrid to officiate the duel between Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid was a bet by the Referee Committee with the goal of validating the elimination of the territoriality criterion.

The precedents of the Andalusian José Luis Munuera Montero in the Sevilla-Betis match and the Catalan Víctor Garcia Verdura in the Espanyol-Barça match encouraged the designating committee, without taking into account the implications of a decision like this in a high-risk match.

The referee tried to apply his usual roadmap: whistling few fouls and saving cards to give fluidity to the game. But he was unable to adapt to the intensity of the protagonists and, when he wanted to tame the match, it was already too late.

The three controversies that shook the Atlético de Madrid-Real Madrid match

The first controversy arrived in the 38th minute: Cuti Romero drove his studs into Jude Bellingham's leg, but the referee considered that the one who deserved the yellow card was the Englishman. The VAR relied on a case of mistaken identity to send his colleague to the monitor. Although UEFA publicly declared that this assumption did not allow the VAR to intervene, the Spanish Referees' Committee communicated to the specific video assistant referees that, if an infringement by two opposing players occurred simultaneously and the official was mistaken in identifying the offender, they were obliged to intervene. The yellow card for Bellingham was withdrawn and the stomp by the Argentine from Atlético was resolved with a yellow card, a highly debatable caution, bordering on a sending-off.

The second controversial action occurred in the 44th minute, when Kang In Lee made contact with the sole of his boot above Fede Valverde's ankle. The CTA directive is clear: if the point of impact is at the joint or above, it is classified as serious foul play and, therefore, is grounds for expulsion. Ortiz Arias only whistled for a foul and Daniel Jesús Trujillo Suárez, from the VOR room, did not have the necessary agility to recommend a review, because the mattress-maker team itself quickly put the ball back into play.

The Madrid-based referee did get it right by detecting Dean Huijsen's holding of Giuliano Simeone, but he was unable to send off the Madrid player in an action that was easy to resolve. When a defender prevents a clear goal-scoring opportunity by committing a foul inside the box, the disciplinary sanction is reduced, unless there is no intention to play the ball. In this case, since it was a holding offense, the card color had to be red, and the VAR had to rescue the referee.

Mourinho takes advantage of the refereeing group's weaknesses to fire with real bullets

The Real Madrid coach appeared before the media with the aim of targeting Ortiz Arias, whom he described as "a poor referee who has only whistled small matches". Furthermore, he questioned that he was 41 years old and not an international referee.

The decision to appoint an official without FIFA experience also surprised the refereeing collective, who saw this match as a showcase to promote Spanish refereeing, which is currently going through difficult times. A situation that is also reflected in the meager participation of Alejandro Hernández Hernández at the World Cup, where he only refereed one match, Brazil-Haiti.

The Portuguese manager also sarcastically recalled "the great track record" of Trujillo Suárez, the VAR referee. The native of Tenerife was inconsistent, combining good calls and errors, a common trend at the start of this League that follows the line of last season, without any green shoots being perceived.