‘Unacceptable’—Diego Simeone Gives Blunt Response to Jose Mourinho’s Referee Fury

Diego Simeone called José Mourinho’s response to the refereeing controversies that dominated Sunday’s Madrid derby defeat against city rivals Atlético “unacceptable” and accused his rival of “crossing the line.”

As a club, Real Madrid issued a statement soon after the final whistle decrying the “terrible refereeing” of Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias. Meanwhile, Mourinho arrived at his postgame press conference with printed images presented as ‘evidence’ Atlético should have had two red cards.

Cristian Romero’s foot on a sliding Jude Bellingham’s knee, and Lee Kang-in’s cleats coming down on Federico Valverde’s ankle. Romero was shown a yellow card after a VAR intervention rescinded the one originally given to Bellingham, while Lee was unpunished, made more of a sickener by the injury Valverde suffered. It has since been reported by AS that the Technical Committee of Referees believe Lee should have been sent off.

Mourinho referred to Ortiz Arias as a “poor guy” who “couldn’t handle the pressure” of the derby because he is “inexperienced and not equipped” for a high-intensity, often bad-tempered, match like this one. He was more upset with Daniel Jesús Trujillo, the VAR official Mourinho claimed “doesn’t have any pressure” in the base away from the stadium in Las Rozas.

In reality, the only red card in the match was shown to Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen, which Mourinho didn’t seem to have much issue with because it came after the flashpoints.

Mourinho offered his sarcastic “congratulations” to the Referee Appointment Committee.

“If they leave us alone, let us be, and let us compete on equal terms with everyone, there’s a long way to go, a very long way. I don’t want to go so far as to say that this is something that was planned. I don’t want to think that. I want to think that they simply made mistakes, just as a coach or a player can make mistakes. I want to think the refereeing committee made a mistake.”

Simeone Calls for Respect

Diego Simeone — Simeone thought Mourinho went too far. | Alberto Gardin/NurPhoto/Getty Images

For Simeone, the furious response from Mourinho lacked respect. The Argentine considered himself and the Portuguese to be in the position of great responsibility within La Liga, alongside Barcelona manager Hansi Flick and Real Betis veteran Manuel Pellegrini.

What he was basically saying is that Mourinho should know better.

“We respect everyone’s opinions, but we have to remember that Flick, Mourinho, Pellegrini and Simeone are in a privileged position, with a huge amount of exposure as coaches, and we have to be careful with what we say,” Simeone said.

“We have to respect the referee and our colleagues. When you cross that line of respect, no matter who you are—Mourinho, Simeone, Flick or Pellegrini—it’s unacceptable; you can’t cross that line.”

Simeone declined to comment on the individual incidents because the play “already happened” and implied it achieves nothing to “dwell” on such things.

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