Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees said Lee Kang-In should have been sent off in Sunday’s Madrid derby, while backing the decision not to show Cristian Romero a red card.
Atlético Madrid won the high-profile LaLiga clash 2-1 at the Metropolitano, but Real Madrid coach José Mourinho slammed referee Miguel Ortiz Arias afterwards, bringing printed-out photos to his post-match news conference to back his claim both players should have been dismissed.
Lee’s challenge on Federico Valverde — which resulted in the Madrid midfielder suffering a grade three ankle sprain that forced him out of Uruguay’s squad for their upcoming friendlies — and Romero’s clash with Jude Bellingham, treading on the England star’s knee, both came in the first half with the game tied at 0-0.
Lee went unpunished, while Romero was shown a yellow card after Bellingham had initially been booked before the VAR intervened.
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In its weekly review of controversial refereeing decisions released on Tuesday, the CTA assessed those two incidents, as well as a red card for Madrid’s Dean Huijsen, which resulted in a penalty Atlético converted to open the scoring.
The CTA first analysed the Huijsen sending off, saying the defender had “grabbed the arm” of Atlético forward Giuliano Simeone, “without the possibility of playing the ball” and that the eventual decision of a red card, after a VAR check, was correct.
It then looked at the Lee challenge, saying there was a “high risk of injury” for Valverde and the failure of Ortiz Arias to show the Atlético player a red card was a “clear and obvious error” which the VAR should have corrected.
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The CTA also said that the VAR had acted correctly in intervening to ensure that Romero was shown a yellow card.
After Sunday’s game, Mourinho slammed both the referee and the VAR, saying Ortiz Arias “couldn’t cope with the pressure” and saying the VAR had a “big history” with Real Madrid.
The loss for Mourinho’s Madrid left them in fourth place in LaLiga, six points behind leaders Barcelona after seven games.
