Why the referee's thinking was conditioned as soon as Jude Bellingham muttered the F-word, writes PETE JENSON as Englishman's red card plays into Real Madrid's agenda

There is no doubt about the sort of welcome Jude Bellingham will be given by Real Madrid supporters on Wednesday night, the Spanish club sees itself as the victim of a refereeing conspiracy in LaLiga and his red card at the weekend has made him a champion of their cause.

What is far more difficult to predict is how his appeal against that dismissal for muttering ‘f*** off’ at referee Jose Luis Munuera – who has since been bombarded with online threats and abuse – is received lunchtime on Wednesday.

Bellingham received the backing of team-mate Fede Valverde in the build-up to Wednesday night’s game. ‘I would never tell a team-mate not to protest,’ he said. ‘Tempers run high when we are out in the middle and Jude is a winner, he always wants to fight for things. I like his grit.’

And Bellingham’s coach Carlo Ancelotti also closed ranks around the England midfielder pointing the finger of blame for recent controversies at Spanish referees. ‘I am more relaxed about European refereeing,’ he said. ‘The VAR only intervenes when it is necessary and you have the best referees from each country.’

By the time Bellingham steps out on to the pitch against Manchester City he’ll know what price he has paid for his dissent. Spanish football’s Disciplinary Committee is likely to ban him for between two and four games depending on whether it rules that he aimed an insult directly at the match official or accepts his argument that it was just an expression of frustration.

Ancelotti was holding out hope that his player could still have the card overturned but he is likely to lose him for several games and there are signs that some of the general admiration Bellingham garnered across Spain when he first joined Real Madrid is on the wane.

Bellingham could be banned for between two and four domestic games for dissent

Some called for Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti to address and not justify Bellingham’s actions

One sports columnist in Spain’s El Mundo newspaper wrote on Monday that the club should be concerned about how the ‘tense and strained atmosphere that they promote is turning a kid who arrived as a gentleman into a hooligan’.

‘Every game Bellingham plays with fire,’ said former Barcelona midfielder and now television pundit Gerard Lopez arguing that Ancelotti should address the situation instead of justifying his player’s actions.

Bellingham had sworn before in front of the referee who sent him off on Saturday. Munuera booked him in a game at home to Espanyol earlier in the season and the England midfielder was captured by cameras responding with ‘what a piece of s***’.

Seven days before his sending off against Osasuna, Bellingham had shouted ‘F*** you man, f*** off’ at the referee’s assistant in the Madrid derby and escaped without punishment.

Munuera will have seen footage of both incidents before last Saturday’s game and it will have conditioned his thinking as soon as Bellingham uttered the F-word.

Madrid are hoping the fact that referee Munuera wrongly stated in his report that Bellingham had said ‘f*** you’ will invalidate the sending off. They have used the revoked red card shown to Mason Greenwood last season to support their case.

Greenwood was sent off by referee Jorge Figueroa who wrote in his report that the player had told him to ‘f*** off’. The appeal committee concluded that the player had merely complained of the number of times he’d been kicked saying: ‘One, two, three, four, f***.’ The red was removed.

Referees are under attack from all sides in Spain in part because there have still been no prosecutions over the scandal, revealed in 2023, that Barcelona had paid over 8million euros during an 18-year period to the vice-president of the referees’ committee Jose Maria Negreira.

Real Madrid will use a similar case involving Mason Greenwood to help overturn the red card

The Spanish giants wrote a letter complaining about refereeing after losing to Espanyol, with the winner scored by Carlos Romero, who had avoided a red card for a foul on Kylian Mbappe

Ancelotti’s support demonstrates Bellingham’s remonstrations are with the club’s blessing

That has left a cloud of suspicion over match officiating and played into Madrid’s agenda. Real Madrid TV regularly emits videos designed to demonstrate that the referee due to take charge of their next game has prejudiced them in the past.

And when Real Madrid were beaten 1-0 by Espanyol two weeks ago with the winning goal scored by a player who should earlier have been sent off, the conspiracy theory went into overdrive.

Madrid sent a letter to the Spanish Football Federation complaining of ‘double standards’ against them. When Bellingham remonstrates, he does so with the club’s blessing as the support from Ancelotti again demonstrated.

In the build-up to Wednesday night’s game Madrid fans were still arguing that what Bellingham said did not warrant the red. One Osasuna fan posted on social media: ‘Manchester City supporters will be in Madrid this week. Approach the first one you see and say ‘f*** off’ and if he tries to hit you then you know it was a fair red card for Bellingham.’

Elsewhere it was jokingly suggested Bellingham does as David Beckham did during his spell at Real Madrid. In May 2004 he was shown a straight red for calling linesman Ignacio Fidalgo the ‘son of a wh***’. He said it in Spanish so there was no ambiguity or appeal.

Bellingham has chosen so far to swear in English but the referees are on to him and that creates a problem for Ancelotti and for the player himself. He may be extolled by team-mates and supporters but he will be playing very little competitive football over the next month if the ban is lengthy and Manchester City were to win on Wednesday night.