Jose Mourinho’s opening week on Clasico duty has produced three distinct public complaints, and none of them have Barcelona in them.

The sharpest arrived on Wednesday night. Minutes after Real Madrid’s 4-1 Champions League win over RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernabeu, Mourinho sat down in the press room and chose the Clasico refereeing leak as his first subject.

“I do not like this type of information, and I do not like it coming out at this time, and I am not referring here to these two referees specifically,” he told reporters, separating his objection from the men being named.

Spanish media had already identified Juan Martinez Munuera as the on-field referee for Sunday’s match at Camp Nou and Iglesias Villanueva as the VAR official, roughly 72 hours before La Liga is due to announce the appointments. The league’s practice is to publish refereeing assignments 24 hours before kick-off.

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Mourinho hammered on that gap. “This comes out of context, but the announcement will be made 24 hours before the match,” he said, flagging the distance between the leak and the official publication without naming who he thought was responsible.

Vinicius already out of Clasico

Madrid were already a forward down walking into the week. Vinicius Junior will not be at Camp Nou after the Spanish federation’s disciplinary committee handed him a four-match ban.

The forward was dismissed against Villarreal after a VAR review found he had pulled Nathan Saliba’s hair in the build-up to a goal that was then disallowed. The committee added two games for violent conduct and two more for protesting against the officials, according to Al Jazeera’s report of the ruling. The Clasico is the second match of the suspension, after last weekend’s trip to Sevilla.

’24 hours of rest less than Barcelona’

The third grievance is the schedule. Barcelona played Tuesday night at Paris Saint-Germain; Real Madrid played Wednesday against Leipzig. That one-day gap in European fixtures has handed Barcelona an extra day’s recovery, and Mourinho was explicit about it after the Leipzig game.

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“We’re losing 24 hours of rest, but we’ll be there,” he said to Movistar+ when asked how his players would face the Clasico.

The midweek asymmetry is set by UEFA’s Champions League matchday order, not by La Liga. It does not change in response to a press-room complaint.

Sunday at Camp Nou

Barcelona host Real Madrid at Camp Nou on Sunday, 25 October. Kick-off is at 9pm local time, the first league Clasico of the 2026-27 season. Real Madrid arrive with three wins from three in the Champions League.

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