In the 2015/16 season, FC Barcelona won the Spanish title, finishing one point ahead of Real Madrid. That year, the Catalans set a record that still stands today: the most penalties awarded to one team in a single La Liga campaign. Lionel Messi and company stepped up to the spot 19 times.

That season – one remembered for a number of controversial refereeing decisions – is being brought up again because Los Blancos have already been awarded 11 penalties in the current league campaign. That equals Real Madrid’s club record from the 2024/25 and 2019/20 seasons. An interesting detail, however, is that in 2015/16 Barcelona had been awarded exactly the same number of penalties after 22 matchdays as Los Blancos have now.

Real Madrid’s penalties this season have come in matches against Osasuna (1–0 win), Levante (4–1 win), Villarreal (3–1 win), Barcelona (2–1 win), Valencia (4–0 win), Girona (1–1 draw), Deportivo Alavés (2–1 win), Sevilla (2–0 win), Levante again (2–0 win), Villarreal again (2–0 win), and Rayo (2–1 win yesterday). Three of those penalties were worth a total of seven points for Real Madrid – without them, their tally would be lower.

The key difference between 2015/16 and the current season lies in the refereeing context. Back then, Spanish football did not yet have VAR, so penalty decisions depended solely on the on-field referee and their assistants. Today, any potential penalty can be reviewed by the VAR team in the VOR room in Las Rozas, which significantly reduces the risk of mistakes in such decisive situations.

It is also worth looking at the broader numbers. In 2015/16, a total of 97 penalties were awarded across La Liga’s 380 matches, an average of 0.26 penalties per game. This season, referees have generally been more willing to point to the spot: 80 penalties have already been given in 218 matches, which works out at 0.37 per game. That also means Barcelona accounted for 19.6% of all penalties awarded in 2015/16, whereas Los Blancos have benefited from 13.8% of this season’s penalties so far.

In the background of these comparisons, there is often an off-field angle as well – the Negreira case – because during that period the Catalans transferred hundreds of thousands of euros to entities linked to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees.