The Blaugrana and Los Blancos boast some of the game's greatest players – but also some of its most entitled moaners
As it stands, Sunday's Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid will go ahead as planned. But who knows what might happen between now and the scheduled kick-off at 16:15 local time?
Madrid could take issue with the identity of the match referee. After all, Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez has taken charge of 35 of their Liga games in the past and they've lost nine of them – the kind of scary statistic that suggests either incompetence or corruption (at least in the mind of Madridistas). After all, when Madrid lose, it's never their fault. The referee is always to blame, which is why they're presently leading a campaign to overhaul the entire system of officiating in Spain.
It's a thankless task – quite literally. Indeed, Madrid are copping quite a lot of flak for raging against a machine that many of their rivals would argue has benefited Los Blancos more than any other club in Spain.
As the Liga leaders, Barcelona have been particularly incensed by their great rivals' constant complaints, which are seen as a rather obvious attempt to discredit the Catalans' seemingly imminent championship success. Barca would also argue that they don't just have to deal with biased refereeing in Spain, as they feel that they're being shafted in Europe, too – as supposedly underlined by Tuesday's Champions League loss at San Siro.
There is still hope that Sunday's post-match discourse will be dominated by debates over the greatness of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Pedri, Vinicius Jr, Kylian Mbappe or Jude Bellingham, but while the game at Montjuic really could be one for the purists, it feels far more likely that it will prove yet another Clasico for the conspiracy theorists…
AFPAnother pathetic protest?
In the extremely unlikely event that anyone has already forgotten, there was very real doubt over whether Madrid would even turn up for the previous Clasico, on April 26. Madrid refused to fulfil their pre-match media duties and there were reports in the Spanish press that they were actually considering boycotting the Copa del Rey final itself.
It seemed perfectly plausible, of course. Madrid have plenty of previous when it comes to throwing hissy fits. They refused to turn up for last year's Ballon d'Or awards ceremony when they learned that Vinicius wasn't going to win – arguably the most pathetic, petty, unjustified and unsporting protest the football world has ever seen.
Madrid insisted that they never entertained the idea of pulling out of the final – but that was only "out of respect to all those fans who have travelled to Seville and those that are already in the Andalucian capital". Why were they so upset then? Because of the alleged "hostility and animosity" shown towards the club by the "referees assigned to the final".
Advertisement@rfef / X'Target on a colleague's head'
It has to be acknowledged that match referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea and VAR Pablo Gonzalez Fuertes should never have been allowed to speak to the media before a game. Such press conferences have been introduced by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in the interests of greater transparency, but the officials' comments were always going to cause controversy, given the pre-existing toxicity surrounding the Copa del Rey Clasico.
However, as both men were at pains to point out, Madrid – and, in particular, their poisonous in-house TV channel that pores over refereeing decisions on a daily basis – had played pivotal roles in the creation of said toxicity and they understandably welcomed the opportunity to speak out.
"The consequences of talking about robberies and using bad words, that frustration you create among fans, is something that the boys and girls who pick up a whistle to do a kids' game end up paying for," Gonzalez Fuertes told reporters. "That is the consequence of putting a target on a colleague’s head."
De Burgos Bengoetxea spoke even more passionately – and movingly – about the devastating effects of the constant criticism of referees.
"When a child goes to school and people tell him his father is a thief it's messed up," the official said, struggling to contain his emotions. "All I can do is educate my son so that he knows that his father is honourable, show him what refereeing is, and for everyone to reflect on where we want to go; I would like you all to know, it is very hard."
Depressingly, that plea for greater understanding has been ignored – and not just by Madrid.
Getty Images Sport'We can't lose respect for referees…'
Barca boss Hansi Flick came out strongly in support of referees while Madrid were going into meltdown ahead of the Copa final. "What's happening isn't right," he said. "We can't lose respect for referees. This is football, and it's our responsibility to protect everyone: players, coaches, and referees. On the pitch, there are emotions, but after the match, we must move on."
Flick struggled to follow his own advice at San Siro on Tuesday, though. "We think that the result is unfair because of some refereeing decisions, I have to say it," Flick said after a 4-3 loss to Inter that saw Barcelona eliminated from the Champions League semi-finals 7-6 on aggregate.
"I don't want to talk too much about the referee," Flick added, before continuing to talk about the referee. "But every decision that was 50-50 ended up being in their favour; that's what makes me sad."
What was truly sad, though, was that Flick felt compelled to confront Szymon Marciniak after the full-time whistle, as it only encouraged further whining from his players in their respective post-match interviews.
Getty Images Sport'UEFA should look into it'
Ronaldo Araujo said Marciniak "influenced" the game, Eric Garcia brought up past grievances from games involving the Pole, while Pedri even went so far as to call for an investigation into Marciniak's handling of the second leg.
"It's not the first time that this has happened to us with this referee, so UEFA should look into it, as there are things that I don't understand and they are complicated to explain: all of the 50-50s went for them," the midfielder said, echoing his coach.
It was all nonsense, of course. Marciniak had actually missed Pau Cubarsi's foul on Lautaro Martinez during the first half and the penalty was only awarded because of the VAR, Dennis Higler, who was also responsible for overruling Marciniak's decision to give Barca a second-half spot-kick as the replays proved that Henrikh Mkhitaryan's foul on Lamine Yamal had actually taken place outside the area.
Barca's claim that Denzel Dumfries had fouled Gerard Martin before Inter's injury-time equaliser was also laughable – as was Inigo Martinez's insistence that he hadn't intentionally spat at Francesco Acerbi after Hakan Calhanoglou's successful penalty attempt. Indeed, for all Barca's b*tching and moaning, the biggest let-off of the night was their centre-back avoiding a straight red card for a disgusting and cowardly reaction to taunting.