Atletico Madrid's Ingenious Criticism of Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid has published a manual for the derby against Real Madrid, inspired by IKEA’s instruction manuals, where they accuse the white club of using their official television to pressure referees.
The publication went viral and the Swedish brand itself responded with irony, saying that if the referee plays dumb, don’t look at us. IKEA’s message was widely applauded by fans on social media for its subtle irony regarding refereeing in the Santiago Bernabeu.
Atletico Madrid had previously consulted with the Royal Spanish Academy of Language on the meaning of verbs such as ‘pressure’, ‘intimidate’ and ‘coerce’, which suggests a deliberate strategy to highlight the severity of Real Madrid’s actions.
The derby will be played this Saturday, February 8th at the Santiago Bernabeu and Atletico Madrid seeks to highlight the importance of fair refereeing. IKEA’s response has been seen as implicit support for Atletico Madrid in their criticism of Real Madrid. Atletico Madrid fans have celebrated their club’s ingenious criticism and IKEA’s response, which has generated a lot of buzz on social media.
