Real Madrid TV criticizes referee over Mbappé penalty incident

The final whistle in Seville did not end the match. It only moved the battle from the pitch to the screen.

Real Madrid’s official television channel has launched a fierce attack on the refereeing team after Kylian Mbappé’s stoppage‑time penalty miss against Real Betis was allowed to stand, insisting the spot-kick should have been retaken under the laws of the game.

The flashpoint came deep into added time, in the 94th minute, with Betis clinging to a 1-0 lead. Minutes earlier, Carlos Espi had seen a Real Madrid goal ruled out, adding to the sense of grievance on the visitors’ side. Then Mbappé stepped up from the spot, only to see his effort saved by the Betis goalkeeper.

Real Madrid players immediately surrounded the referee, protesting that a Betis defender had encroached into the area before the French forward struck the ball. Their appeals went nowhere. The referee waved play on, treated it as a matter of interpretation, and the game closed out with Betis taking all three points.

That decision lit the fuse in Madrid.

On its post-match coverage, Real Madrid TV dissected the penalty frame by frame and accused the referee of a clear “technical error”. The channel argued that a Betis defender had his right foot on the penalty area line at the exact moment Mbappé took the kick, stepping fully inside a split-second later, and that this movement directly influenced the rebound.

The broadcast also highlighted Héctor Bellerín, claiming he too had one foot touching the line when the shot was struck. Under the letter of the law, Real Madrid TV insisted, that should have been enough to order a retake.

The tone was blistering. The club channel branded the decision “a contradiction from the referee” and expressed astonishment “that a referee does not know his own regulations”. It described the non-intervention as “a technical error”, leaving little doubt about where it placed the blame.

The criticism did not stop at the Mbappé incident. Real Madrid TV linked the penalty controversy with Espi’s earlier disallowed goal, suggesting a double standard in high-stakes calls.

“Had this happened with Barcelona, the penalty would have been retaken,” the channel argued, adding that “had Espi’s goal been for Barcelona, perhaps it would not have been disallowed”.

The insinuation was clear: the channel sees a pattern, not an isolated mistake.

The refereeing team, for its part, maintained that Marc Bartra did not step on the line before the kick and therefore did not infringe the rules. Real Madrid’s channel flatly rejected that defence, countering that even if Bartra never actually touched the line, he charged forward early and “intervened directly in the play”, which in its view should still have triggered a retake.

In its breakdown, the Madrid outlet framed the whole episode in stark terms: the foul during the taking of the penalty “was not awarded, whether due to oversight or incompetence”. That, it said, is why the penalty was not ordered to be retaken and why the result remained 1-0 to Betis.

One contentious call, one missed chance from the spot, and one furious club channel later, La Liga’s new season already has its first full-blown refereeing storm.