Every football season, the media spotlight turns at some point to Real Madrid and their apparent preference by the La Liga officials. This year is no different, with memes on social media pointing towards the astounding amount of penalties awarded to the European champions in the early stages of this La Liga campaign.
With Liverpool facing Real Madrid in the Champions League first phase next month, do the statistics provide cause for concern for the Reds and what appears to be a tendency to award the Spanish giants more spot kicks than most?
@ligue1 Penalty a favor del Real Madrid #sportstiktok #Ligue1McDonalds #Ligue1 #football #meme #funny #trendingvideo
In the first eight La Liga matches this season, Real Madrid have been awarded a monstrous five penalty kicks and scored all of them, matching their tally for the whole of last season. It’s fair to say that more than one of the decisions have been called into question by fans.
Real Madrid got a penalty for a foul outside the box in the 87th min while leading 3-1.
They are so shameless 😭 pic.twitter.com/bY7v9t84bB
— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) September 22, 2024
The controversy included the latest penalty, for which Endrick was being held whilst attempting to drive in to the box against Espanyol. The Brazilian continued his run in to the area before throwing himself to the ground and earning the pen. Although this decision is correct according to the law, the manor of the challenge was definitely controversial.
The statistic that most worries fans when looking at the figures is the fact that the closest challengers to the powerhouses from the penalty spot only have two spot kicks to their name. That’s is a sizeable gap from the rest of the division. The club from the capital are currently being awarded 0.62 penalties per game. This doubles the La Liga average of 0.3 per game.
Data also shows that the European juggernauts have had or matched the highest number of penalties awarded in a La Liga season in four of the last eight seasons with them being within two penalties of the top in two of the other four seasons.
One accepted theory in football is that bigger clubs will receive more penalties because of their attacking style and subconscious bias from referees. However, statistics from other European leagues don’t fit in with the argument. Bayern Munich and PSG have only topped the penalty charts once in the previous five years from last season. Whilst in the Premier League, no team has topped the penalty chart more than twice in the last eight seasons.
This represents the perceived preference from Spanish officials to Real Madrid. The fact that they have only missed out on the conversation of penalty poster boys twice in eight years strays away from trends in other top European leagues and strikes fans as concerning.
Real Madrid have scored more penalties this season than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues (𝟱) 🎯 pic.twitter.com/5g3AKoYvcn
— LiveScore (@livescore) October 4, 2024
A lot of the discussion around this topic is said with tongue firmly in cheek. Most people see the ridiculous start to the La Liga season as a freak occurrence and not something to be taken note of. On the other hand, the trend is an anomaly in Europe and must attract attention from other leagues and teams. It’s definitely something Liverpool will be keeping an eye on going into their Champions League clash at the end of November.
To investigate the stats further, visit TransferMarkt
