Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid, has escaped punishment despite accusing the refereeing body of the biggest corruption case in the history of football.
The Competition Committee drew a line under the case involving the Real Madrid president, deeming his words freedom of expression. Now the Referees' Committee has opened a new front. This time the target is Jose Mourinho, following his outburst after the Atletico Madrid derby.
No punishment for the accusation of "theft and systematic corruption"
The Disciplinary Committee of the Spanish Football Federation decided, according to the newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", not to take any disciplinary action against Perez. The decision followed an investigation into his fiery statements during the press conference he held on 12 May to announce the call for elections.
Perez dropped a resounding bombshell that day, saying: "I have spent many seasons here, and I have won seven Champions League titles and seven La Liga titles, because the other titles were stolen from me."
The president of Real Madrid added: "Systematic refereeing corruption for two decades, and it is still the referees themselves who practise it."
In an unprecedented attack, he went on: "We are preparing a 500-page file that we will submit to UEFA. It is the biggest corruption case in the history of football." He accused the referees of illicit enrichment, saying: "I did not come here for some referees to enrich themselves with Barcelona's money."
Speaking in an interview on the "La Sexta" channel, he continued: "Systematic corruption. The same referees keep doing the same things, in a blatant manner. They have stolen 16 or 18 points from us this season."
Just three days later, the referees' union filed an official complaint with the Disciplinary Committee. They argued that Perez's statements "cannot be justified within the framework of exercising freedom of expression or sporting criticism, as he did not merely point to specific refereeing errors, but attributed to the refereeing committee the commission of an ongoing crime of corruption over two decades".
The complaint forced the committee to open an investigation and appoint a special judge. As the newspaper "AS" revealed, the investigating judge's report concluded that there were insufficient grounds to impose disciplinary sanctions on the Real Madrid president. Perez submitted a legal report on the same day to support his position.
Mourinho enters the danger zone
The irony is that the acquittal came just one day after a new incident involving Jose Mourinho.
At the end of the derby between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, the Portuguese coach strongly criticised the performance of the officials, singling out for attack the VAR referee Daniel Trujillo Suarez.
Unlike Perez, Mourinho now faces escalation. The Technical Committee of Referees and the referees' union are currently studying, in cooperation with the federation's legal department, filing an official complaint against the Portuguese coach with the federation's Disciplinary Body over his statements.
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So the president survives and the coach is left alone facing the guillotine of sanctions, in a new chapter of the open war between Real Madrid and the Spanish refereeing system.