Rexach: Real Madrid are the 'team that has benefited most' from referees
Barcelona legend Carles Rexach has waded into Spanish football's refereeing debate with a withering verdict aimed squarely at Real Madrid, insisting that Los Blancos are the club that has "benefited the most" from match officials throughout history.
Speaking to the 2Cat program El cafè d'idees, the former Blaugrana forward and coach offered no sympathy for the capital club, claiming that Madrid have traditionally seen results go in their favor both in Spain and across Europe.
No sympathy for Los Blancos after derby defeat
Real Madrid TV regularly complain about referees and were at it again after Sunday's derby defeat to Atletico Madrid. Manager Jose Mourinho also criticized the match officials following the loss, but Rexach was in no mood to entertain the complaints.
"Throughout history, the team that has benefited the most, not only in Spain but in Europe, has been Real Madrid. In my time playing, we always came away with our losses," he said.
The 79-year-old icon, who won multiple league titles with Barcelona as a player in the 1960s and 1970s and later coached the club to a Cup Winners' Cup triumph, recalled a career in which such decisions routinely went against his own side.
VAR has not delivered, says Rexach
Rexach revealed that he was initially a strong supporter of video assistant referee technology, believing it would correct the kind of injustices that defined his playing days. But he admitted that the innovation has not had the impact he hoped for.
"I thought that with the VAR system, which I was initially very much in favor of—because you can't have a goal awarded when the ball hasn't crossed the line, and before they couldn't disallow it—I thought this advantage of VAR would be more effective. But if before there was a problem with the referee and the linesmen, now there are the same ones plus the VAR officials, and we haven't made much progress; we're in the same situation as before," he said.
The remarks land at a sensitive moment for Madrid, whose position in the title race has already suffered. Sunday's defeat has left the club down in fourth place in the table in Spain, six points behind Barcelona after the first seven games of the campaign.