Real Madrid TV Critiques Mbappé Penalty Decision Against Betis
The final whistle in Seville did not end the argument. It only moved it to the television studio.
Real Madrid’s official channel has launched a fierce attack on the refereeing team after Kylian Mbappé’s stoppage‑time penalty miss against Real Betis, insisting the spot-kick should have been retaken and branding the decision not to do so a “technical error”.
The match finished 1-0 to Betis, but the scoreline has become secondary. According to Spanish newspaper AS, the late penalty incident has turned into one of the biggest controversies of the opening rounds of the new La Liga season.
Disallowed goal, then late chaos
The tension had already been cranked up. Minutes before the penalty, Carlos Espi saw a Real Madrid goal ruled out, a decision that left the visitors simmering.
Then came the 94th minute.
Mbappé stepped up from the spot with a chance to salvage a point. The Real Betis goalkeeper saved, Betis cleared, and the home crowd erupted. Real Madrid’s players did not. They immediately surrounded the referee, claiming a Betis defender had encroached into the area before the French forward struck the ball.
The referee waved play on, calling it a matter of interpretation. No retake. No second chance. Full time: Real Betis 1, Real Madrid 0.
That was the spark.
“A contradiction from the referee”
Real Madrid TV quickly tore into the decision, dissecting the penalty frame by frame. The channel argued that a Betis defender had his right foot on the penalty area line at the exact moment Mbappé hit the ball and then stepped fully inside, directly influencing the outcome of the play.
It also highlighted Hector Bellerin, pointing out that he too had one foot touching the line when the kick was taken.
The tone was blistering. The channel called the decision “a contradiction from the referee” when measured against the laws of the game and expressed astonishment “that a referee does not know his own regulations”, labelling the call “a technical error”.
The criticism did not stop there. The broadcast openly suggested double standards in Spanish football’s biggest rivalry: “Had this happened with Barcelona, the penalty would have been retaken, and had Espi’s goal been for Barcelona, perhaps it would not have been disallowed.”
Oversight or incompetence, the channel argued, lay behind the decision that the foul during the taking of the penalty “was not awarded”.
Clash over Bartra’s role
The refereeing team, for its part, maintained that Marc Bartra did not step on the line and therefore did not commit an infringement that required a retake.
Real Madrid’s channel rejected that interpretation outright. Even if Bartra never actually touched the line, it insisted, he still charged forward early and intervened directly in the play, which in its view should have been enough to order the penalty to be taken again.
One game, one missed penalty, one disallowed goal – and a refereeing storm that is already shaping the narrative of La Liga’s early weeks.
