Almería has played twenty games in the Spanish league until Sunday. With a sad record: last in the table, twenty relegations and no wins, only 6 draws and 14 defeats. To make matters worse, they met Real Madrid (second, a point behind Girona, but with a game in hand) at the imposing Bernabéu stadium. That is, almost a leader. Everything predicted another victory over modest Andalusia. However, before the first minute of the game, Almería scored. General surprise. And towards the end of the first half, the second break through the ice: 2-0 victory on the road. However, in the second phase, the black legend of Real Madrid and its historic “luck” with arbitration emerged like never before.

First, a non-existent penalty was awarded to the white team after a cross in which there was a double fault by the merengue forwards: Rudiger on Édgar González and Joselu on Kaiky. The latter, due to Joselu’s push from behind, touches the ball with his hand without even seeing it. But the referee, who was called by VAR, awarded a penalty and dismissed Carlo Ancelotti’s penalties: 1-2. Four minutes later, Almería scored a third goal on the counterattack, which was perfectly valid. The referee on the field confirmed it, but VAR was called again, which flagged a possible foul at the start of the match, in midfield. It was nothing major, Lopy’s touch on Bellingham’s face, but the referee disallowed the goal and warned Lopy. Then there was an equalizer in Madrid, which was very clearly marked by Vinicius’ hand. There, VAR determined that it was legal. They went 2 for 2.

At that moment, social media showed global outrage at the three verdicts that changed the result. Something else was missing: the referee gave 11 minutes of extra time, and in the 99th Carvajal scored for 3:2 in favor of Madrid. A legitimate goal. Friends poured in from all over the continent. Spain was all in tears. Albert Masnou, deputy director of the newspaper Sportasks for a replay of the game.

It is always said that referees favor the big teams, but what happened with Madrid far surpasses any comparison. He does not resist it. This does not happen with Bayern Munich, Manchester United or Juventus. Not in any other country.

“I became bitter,” said Alfredo Relaño, honorary president of the Ultramadridista daily AS-. It’s rare for a game to make me feel bad, and this one does. The three points for Madrid may be worth it, but they do massive reputational damage. There are too many people in Spain who want these things to happen to them and portray them as such. And all this because of the meddling VAR. It gives food to the anti-Madridists for a long time.” It bothers Real fans that year after year, from game to game, they come to the same song, but it happens that this is a matter of life. One was a child and there were already talks about the referee’s repeated favoring of Madrid. No one denies the fantastic footballers that Di Stéfan’s club had or the size of the most winning and popular club in the world, however, the verdicts in his favor are hundreds, in Cup, League, Champions League.

The name of the judge is not important, there were hundreds of judges with different surnames, it was like that for everyone. In every football game there is at least one controversial play that can change the result. Sometimes two, three. For as long as we can remember (and we have a lot of use for it), almost all suspicious games, and those that are not, end in favor of Real Madrid. Against any opponent and on any field. Never against the bad side, always in favor. It infuriates, infuriates. In a tournament of 38 dates, the club can be involved in 40 or 50 debatable games, always a whistle for the Madrid team. That’s a happy average. And football is not like rugby, where games end with a score of 43 to 7, 29 to 8. You can’t blame the referee there. Here it’s 1-0, 1-1, 2-1… A poorly awarded penalty changes the score. And there were too many penalties and dubious goals. Not counting the attacks of Sergio Ramos, when he was dressed in white, which were missed, or the second yellow for Casemiro that never arrived, or the violence of Pepe, generally pardoned. Sometimes it was so flagrant that the referee stained his championship suit. Referees are there to decide, but they never let Madrid down.

When VAR arrived in football, millions said: “Now it’s over for Madrid.” It was worse. The VAR calls the referee, makes him go to the monitor and when he goes to watch the game again, he is obliged to charge what they say. This is where a complex of explanations is created, which ends with the dilution of guilt. No guilt. No one left.

Sunday’s game against Almeria revived the old chant “This way, this way, this is how Madrid wins…”, which was heard on all the pitches in Spain. How was it born…? Relaño himself says this in one of his magnificent chronicles:

“Sporting de Gijón were never as close to winning the league as they were in the 1978-1979 season. He had a great team in which the great scorer Quini stood out. But there were other outstanding players, among them the Argentines Rezza and Ferrero. Almost all the starting players were internationals, either for Spain or Argentina. The team did very well in the championship, but in the twenty-sixth round, when they lost to Madrid, 0-1 at El Molinón, the title began to seem impossible. Madrid won the game well, but no one could forget that the previous day, during Sporting’s visit to Salamanca, García Carrión sent off Doria and Ferrer, which is why they were left without those two players for Madrid’s welcome. Ferrero was especially important, perhaps the best player of the championship in those years. In the end, Madrid won the league and Sporting came second, four points behind.”

He continues his story: “There was a passionate atmosphere for Madrid’s visit to Sporting’s ground next season. And there was Ferrero. In the 6th minute, there is a game that stirs up passions. Ferrero receives the ball near the touchline, with his back to his player, San José, and executes the play he normally practiced: he lets it pass between his legs to deceive the defender, so that the ball overtakes him to one side and he surrounds in a race for another; San José, mocked, goes to the other to stop Ferrer, who stops him with an elbow to the mouth; Ferrero gets angry and pushes San José, and he lets himself fall. The referee adjudged the foul from Madrid as interference, but at the same time sent off Ferrer for alleged aggression. Suddenly you see blood flowing from Ferrer’s mouth, which is the result of St. Joseph’s elbow, which further enrages the public. Ferrero, the victim of a foul, leaves bleeding, sent off, and San José stays on the field. Spontaneously, a shout goes up that the entire field soon chants: “This way, this way, this way, Madrid wins!” The game continues and will end in a draw at one. The match is broadcast live, so the chants, so repeated, are known throughout Spain. Madrid got a point that would eventually be worth winning the league. With a point less, the champion would be Real Sociedad.”

Singing has been going on for forty-five years. It has not lost its validity. (OR)