Why Real Madrid's Bernabéu Is the Only Stadium Without Referee Interviews

The Santiago Bernabéu is the only stadium currently excluded from Spain's new referee interview policy.

Spanish football just started letting referees explain themselves on TV. At exactly one ground, that isn't happening and it's not because anyone banned it.

Spain Introduces New Referee Interview Policy

Spain's new policy allows broadcasters to interview referees before and after matches.

This season, Spain's referees' committee (the CTA) introduced a new transparency policy: officials can be interviewed before and after matches, at a broadcaster's request, to explain contested decisions. It's already begun on a small scale and is set to expand fully from the tenth round of fixtures.

According to Spanish outlet Sport, the policy will apply at 41 of the 42 stadiums used across Spain's top two professional divisions, La Liga and Segunda División.

Why Real Madrid's Bernabéu Is the Only Exception

The one exception is Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu.

That's worth stating precisely, because the reason matters.

Per multiple outlets citing Sport, the CTA hasn't excluded Real Madrid or issued any sanction against the club. Instead, the Bernabéu doesn't currently meet the technical conditions the interviews require, because of restrictions Real Madrid already has in place on how outside broadcasters can operate inside the stadium separate rules that predate this specific initiative and aren't aimed at referees at all

Real Madrid's History of Refereeing Tensions in Spain

Refereeing decisions involving Real Madrid have often attracted attention in Spanish football.

The context helps explain why this is getting attention regardless.

Real Madrid and Spanish football's governing bodies have a genuinely tense relationship over refereeing: the club's own in-house channel has previously run segments criticising specific officials before matches, which led at least one opponent, Sevilla, to file a formal complaint with the Spanish federation over what they called an "orchestrated campaign" against a referee's integrity.

So, while the Bernabéu is the sole exception, the idea that Real Madrid banned referees from speaking is misleading. The situation is instead linked to the club's existing broadcast restrictions, which predate the new referee interview policy.

It's closer to: Real Madrid's existing broadcast rules happen to clash with a new transparency measure, at a stadium where referee coverage was already a sensitive subject before this policy existed.