Real Madrid were due to face Sevilla on Sunday, 18 October, in La Liga. GOAL said matches against Sevilla bring back two prominent flashpoints between Jose Mourinho and refereeing.
Budapest final confrontation
The most recent of those flashpoints came in the 2023 Europa League final, when Roma lost to Sevilla on penalties in Budapest. After the final whistle, Mourinho rushed towards referee Anthony Taylor and said, "You are a disgrace, you are a disgrace."
UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings and handed Mourinho a four-match ban.
What Mourinho said after the final
At the press conference after that final, Mourinho said, "We go home feeling dead because of the injustice. But it was a great match and a big final. The referee seemed Spanish, because of that number of yellow cards. And when he should have given Lamela a second yellow card, he didn't, and then he scored one of the penalty shootout goals. It is an injustice."
In the car park at the Puskas Arena, Mourinho showed footage of the penalty awarded to Sevilla before the video assistant referee overturned it. Roberto Rosetti, described as the man in charge of refereeing at UEFA, tried to calm Mourinho down there.
"You were in agreement with them," Mourinho replied. He then turned back to Taylor and said, "Even Rosetti said it is not a penalty, and you were not able to see it."
Months later, asked about the English referee again, Mourinho said, "I will not say what I think about Taylor, because they will punish me with a ten-match ban."
The 2010 Sevilla complaints
GOAL said Mourinho's tense relationship with refereeing in Sevilla matches goes back to December 2010, during his first season with Real Madrid. In that match, Real Madrid beat Sevilla with a goal from Angel Di Maria.
After the game, Mourinho went to the press conference with a list of 13 incidents he considered refereeing errors by Clos Gomez.
The list of 13 incidents
According to GOAL's account of Mourinho's complaints, the list included objections to offside decisions, fouls not given in favour of Real Madrid's players, demands for yellow cards and a penalty, and criticism of the way stoppage time was calculated. GOAL said Mourinho also pointed to a penalty not awarded after a challenge on Granero in the 69th minute.
Mourinho said, "They gave me a list containing 13 serious errors. And they asked me if I feel tired of the pressure. No, because I don't feel pressure when I do the things I love: training and playing. What I feel somewhat tired of is that they give me a list of serious refereeing errors, and then they want me to attack the referee and defend my team. This team deserves someone to defend it, today and on many other occasions."
He added: "If I take this list and act on it, the result will always be the same: Mourinho banned. We have a club and an administrative structure, and I want everyone to defend my team, not for me to be the only one doing it. What happened today does not even deserve comment."
Clos Gomez later took on responsibility for video assistant referee technology in Spain from March 2018. Mourinho demanded an urgent meeting with Florentino Perez because he was unhappy at carrying the burden of protesting against refereeing decisions alone and then paying for it with punishments and bans.