Barcelona Real Madrid and the Madrid Media

[KURUPTION-81]

Interesting article on madrid papers

Whilst Xavi Hernández can't have been best pleased to see his team-mate Gerard Piqué being sent off after a tasty, two-footed tackle against Getafe on Saturday night, the Barça midfielder was still able to see at least one positive side to an otherwise unfortunate event.

"At least there'll be a little less talk about referees," noted the scorer of the second goal in the 2-1 win over Getafe - a clash that also saw a red card for Rafael Marquez that reduced the Camp Nou club to nine men in the final minutes of the encounter.

'Fat chance' was the collective response from the Madridista press who have been running an insane campaign of late, claiming that every aspect of Barcelona's success this season is down to the largesse of corrupt officials participating in a plot to prevent the almighty Madrid taking their rightful place at the top of the table.

'This can all be seen in 'the other league' where Guardiola's men have six points more than they should,' sniffs Marca's editorial on Monday, that advises readers to look at their own table, adjusted to reflect the paper's interpretation of refereeing decisions to leave Madrid just one point behind Barça.

It is press-produced lunacy driven by petulance over Barça's five-point lead, jealousy over the Catalan club's continued success, the need to shift a few papers when there is naff all else going on and perhaps a phone call or two from Real Madrid with some 'editorial advice'.

The madness began in earnest a fortnight ago with Cristiano Ronaldo's expulsion and two-match suspension after an elbow to the face of Málaga's Patrick Mtiliga - a footballer who deliberately got his nose broken by CR9 to become more famous, according to some Real Madrid fans known to your correspondent.

After the subsequent appeal against that ban was turned down, the Madrid press leapt upon this injustice and jammed it together with a 1-0 win over Sporting for Barcelona in the same round as proof positive of a pro-Barça conspiracy that explains the league champions' 'superiority' in la Liga.

The victory in El Molinón was down to a narrow - but correct - offside decision in Barcelona's favour and saw a fruity tackle from Leo Messi that was a punished with a yellow rather than a red card.

However, replay after replay, photo after photo, was broadcast of the offside call involving Pedro with Marca being accused by the Barcelona press of photoshopping the image to move the culé striker into an offside position at the moment of the pass.

TV channel 'Cuatro' used a virtual offside line that looked somewhat diagonal in its slant to this column's eyes to rule out Barcelona's goal as illegal.

"These campaigns are intolerable," complained Barça's sporting director Txiki Beguiristain after a week of editorials from Marca and AS claiming that Barcelona's undefeated 21-match league record along with the team's 52 goals scored and 11 conceded was all down to perfidious referees.

However, Pep Guardiola has been taking the whole ridiculous affair a little less seriously and commented on a controversial midweek penalty awarded to Atlético Madrid from a tackle that took place outside the box.

"We called Atleti and told them, 'don't worry', we can help!" joshed the Barcelona coach ahead of Saturday's victory over Getafe.

Unfortunately, the Madridista press are in no joking mood with Marca putting Pique's tackle on Sunday's front cover, asking the question, 'so how many matches is this worth?'

Later on in the same edition, their resident referee was still not satisfied with Madrid's 3-0 victory over Espanyol from Saturday night and felt that a penalty should have been awarded to the home side to make it a four-goal victory along with three red cards to Real's opponents.

And that was on top of the paper's analysis of Barcelona's win which apparently came about through two illegal goals and should have seen a sending-off for Eric Abidal.

'Before, there was Madridismo with objectivity,' sighed Santi Nolla in Monday's edition of Barcelona-based Sport on his capital city counterparts, 'now there's just Madridismo.'

If truth be told, it is doubtful that most of the journalists involved in this nonsense believe the rubbish that they are spouting. However, papers have to be sold and sports shows need to be watched.

The problem, at the moment, is that there is almost nothing else to write about in regards to the Big Two in la Liga and there is little interest in Spain in the goings-on of the other 18 also-rans of la Primera, aside from Atlético's ongoing adventures.

Madrid have now won 11 from 11 at home after swiping away the likes of Zaragoza and Tenerife whilst Barcelona have rarely been in serious danger of losing their unbeaten record so far this season.

The league campaign, up to now, has been a big phoney war that has left second-placed Madrid eight points ahead of their nearest challengers Valencia and 13 from Sevilla, in fourth.

But soon, papers of both Big Two persuasions may have some actual news to jam onto their front pages as opposed to childish bickering.

Barcelona face a potentially stern challenge in the Vicente Calderón next Sunday against an Atlético Madrid side that is more than capable of defeating the league leaders - as well as losing 15-0 too.

With Madrid expected to overcome bottom of the table Xerez - despite The Man working against them - the gap at the top of the table may, just may, be reduced to a more intriguing two.

Real Madrid's next two encounters at the Bernabeu will be against Villarreal and Sevilla, two sides who may show a little more resistance than Espanyol did on Saturday with the visitors failing to manage an away goal in the league since September.

Moans and groans about referees having it in for side A or side B are hardly restricted to Spain. After all, both managers in last week's horror-fest between Sunderland and Wolves whined that decisions had been going against their clubs all season.

Indeed, it would refreshing to hear a manager admitting, one day, that a dodgy penalty against his team was "only fair, as the refs have helped us loads this year".

While a lot of this media madness in Spain can be laughed off, reading every paper and watching every channel as they spout the same conspiratorial nonsense can genuinely drive you nuts. Especially when a fair amount of it stems from political rather than editorial concerns.

But what is really distressing is that people are actually taking leave of their senses and beginning to believe what is being written and said.

They believe that Madrid are being robbed of the league title.

They believe that Cristiano Ronaldo is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

They believe that Kaká and Karim Benzema are great value for money.

But more incredibly, they believe that Barcelona are top of the table due to referees and not because of the simple fact that they are much better than everyone else.

[StreetsAllSalute]

hardly the 1st time the media has followed its own agenda

[K.Dub]

Not that I don't believe you, but would be better if you posted your sources.

[KURUPTION-81]

Not that I don't believe you, but would be better if you posted your sources.

ah shit forgot to include it but it was an article from Goal.com

[StreetsAllSalute]

Not that I don't believe you, but would be better if you posted your sources.

ah shit forgot to include it but it was an article from Goal.com

lol thats worse than no source

[13th Duke]

Goal.com is a horrendous site. I'm sure the other day I saw Newcastle linked with Lampard on a one month loan. Its a ridiculous site.

[JAZ]

tl;dr. summary?

[KURUPTION-81]

Not that I don't believe you, but would be better if you posted your sources.

ah shit forgot to include it but it was an article from Goal.com

lol thats worse than no source

Goal.com is a horrendous site. I'm sure the other day I saw Newcastle linked with Lampard on a one month loan. Its a ridiculous site.

lol yeah you can pretty much take there transfer storys with a pinch of salt