{"id":492494,"date":"2025-04-25T14:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=492494"},"modified":"2025-04-25T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:52:08","slug":"real-madrid-considers-boycotting-copa-del-rey-final-vs-barcelona-amid-referee-drama","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/real-madrid-considers-boycotting-copa-del-rey-final-vs-barcelona-amid-referee-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid considers boycotting Copa del Rey final vs Barcelona amid referee drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just hours before the much-anticipated Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, an explosive row has erupted involving match referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, Real Madrid\u2019s club media, and the Spanish football federation (RFEF).<\/p>\n<p>The spark came from a controversial video aired by Real Madrid TV, criticizing De Burgos\u2019 refereeing record. The segment highlighted that Madrid had won just 64% of games officiated by De Burgos, while Barcelona had won 81%, framing it as evidence of bias. The video included ominous music and pointed out alleged past errors by the referee\u2014without offering full context, such as opponents or match locations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udea8 BREAKING: Real Madrid is considering NOT playing in Copa del Rey Final tomorrow unless the referee and VAR is changed.<\/p>\n<p>They are considering going HOME. \ud83d\ude32<\/p>\n<p>(Via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elmundoes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@elmundoes<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pQ8nUjhBHp\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/pQ8nUjhBHp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pubity Sport (@pubitysport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pubitysport\/status\/1915819556137824356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>An emotional De Burgos broke down in a press conference Friday, revealing that the backlash had reached his personal life:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo see your son come from school crying because some kids have said his dad is a crook is very hard to take.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He insisted on his integrity, saying: \u201cI make mistakes, like any athlete, but I am honorable. I want my son to be proud of his father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a rare move, Real Madrid issued a strong counterstatement, condemning the referees\u2019 public remarks as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and accusing them of harboring \u201cclear and manifest animosity\u201d toward the club. The club argued that its TV channel is protected by freedom of expression and denounced what it called \u201cthreatening\u201d rhetoric from the referees.<\/p>\n<p>Their statement urged the RFEF to take immediate action to defend the \u201cprestige of the institutions\u201d involved.<\/p>\n<p>Spanish media now reports that Real Madrid are considering boycotting the final altogether after their official request to replace De Burgos as the match referee was denied by the federation. While no final decision has been made public, the standoff has cast a serious shadow over one of the most globally watched fixtures in club football.<\/p>\n<p>All eyes now turn to Seville \u2014 not only for the outcome of El Cl\u00e1sico, but to see whether it will even be played as scheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just hours before the much-anticipated Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, an explosive row has erupted involving match referee Ricardo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":492495,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17224,17732,17375],"news_category":[137,14235,16715],"gn_keywords":[17560,957,327],"acf":{"announce":"Los Blancos demand the referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea to be changed before the game on Saturday night","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/492494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/492494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492497,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/492494\/revisions\/492497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492494"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=492494"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=492494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}