The Technical Committee of Referees in La Liga decided on Monday to impose an immediate penalty on the referee team for the Espanyol vs. Real Madrid match in La Liga's 22nd round.
The performance of Muniz Ruiz and Iglesias Villanueva in the Espanyol vs. Real Madrid match faced significant criticism from Real Madrid due to their failure to show a red card to Carlos Romero, the Espanyol player, after his violent tackle on Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe.
According to Spanish outlet Relief, the Refereeing Committee had appointed these two referees to officiate the Atlético Madrid vs. Getafe match in the Copa del Rey on Tuesday. However, in the last hours, they decided to remove them from the officiating duties due to their mistakes.
Muniz Ruiz and Iglesias Villanueva’s performance faced widespread criticism, particularly regarding Romero's violent tackle on Mbappe, which clearly threatened the French player's safety, but Romero was only penalized with a yellow card.
The Refereeing Committee considers this a major mistake by the main referee and the assistant video referee, especially since, minutes later, Romero scored the winning goal for Espanyol, which infuriated Real Madrid, who labeled the referees' performance as a "global scandal."
In addition to this incident, Real Madrid called for a penalty to be awarded in their favor for a handball by Jofre Carreras in the ninth minute and objected to the cancellation of Vinicius Junior's goal in the 21st minute due to an alleged foul by Mbappe on Paul Lozano, even though Lozano had pulled the Frenchman’s neck just before.
Real Madrid also protested Lozano's violent challenge on Vinicius, which Muniz Ruiz did not even call a foul for.