Words Can Bring Trouble! Marca: Real Madrid’s Majority of Yellow Cards Due to Protesting Referees Is La Liga’s Highest

According to Spain’s Marca, Real Madrid has not received a high number of yellow cards this season; they are the sixth least-carded team in La Liga. However, the reasons for their bookings in the early games have drawn attention.

Real Madrid has accumulated 12 yellow cards so far, plus one red card that Mendy received in the first match against Mallorca. Notably, six of these yellow cards, which is half, were given because players protested against the referee’s decisions. Carvajal (against Las Palmas and Betis), Vinicius (against Betis and Espanyol), Mbappe, and Bellingham (against Espanyol) all received yellow cards for complaining about the referee.

Compared to last season, this trend is particularly pronounced. In the 2023-24 season, Real Madrid received a total of 72 yellow cards, 14 of which were due to players protesting the referee. This accounted for 19% of the total yellow cards, while this season the proportion has risen to half. In other words, Real Madrid players received one yellow card every three games for protesting last season, whereas now it averages one per game.

In the early part of this season, Ancelotti’s team has already received 12 yellow cards, which is only two more than the same period last year, but the number of yellow cards for protesting referees has increased by four. Currently, Valladolid follows closely with five similar yellow cards.

According to regulations, only the captain can communicate with the referee under specific circumstances. This season, the Spanish Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) emphasized that only the captain has the right to converse with the referee during matches, and also pointed out that at crucial refereeing moments, the referee is obligated to explain the reasons for their decisions to the players, such as why a penalty was awarded, why a red card was shown, or why a goal was disallowed. This rule aims to reduce instances of players surrounding the referee. Therefore, any player who is not the captain can also communicate with the referee if they have issues with the referee’s decision, such as receiving a yellow card or believing they were wrongly penalized.

Despite this, it remains inconclusive whether this new regulation will significantly impact how players communicate with referees. From the data, the proportion of yellow cards related to protests has slightly increased (from 14% last season to 16%), while the average number of yellow cards per game has slightly decreased (from 5 to 4.5). This means that although there has been an increase in yellow cards due to protests, the rise is not significant, thus more time is needed to observe whether this policy will bring about more noticeable changes.