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5 months ago
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The referees and the VAR once again found itself in the midst of controversy last night when Real Madrid secured a narrow win over Barcelona at Santiago Bernabeu.
With the game firmly poised at the half-hour mark, Barcelona were able to score from a corner kick in the 28th minute. Andriy Lunin was on hand to try and save the effort, but the ball had clearly passed the line.
However, due to a lack of goal-line technology in La Liga, the onus was on VAR to review the goal. And much to the surprise of the Barcelona fans, VAR disallowed the goal, claiming Lunin had saved the ball from going behind the line.
It was an important decision that might have changed the course of the game, with Barcelona eventually losing 3-2.
Joan Laporta fires shots once again
A day after the loss, Barcelona president Joan Laporta has now come all guns blazing, criticising the VAR technology and it is implemented by La Liga.
“There are tools like VAR that should help to have a fairer competition and not the other way around,” said Laporta through Barcelona’s official channels.
The Barcelona president went on to confirm that the club would demand all the images and audio recordings produced during the goal.
The moment that created all the controversy (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
“I inform you that we at FC Barcelona will immediately ask the Technical Jury and the Spanish Football Federation to provide us with all the images and audio recordings produced during the goal,” he said.
Pointing his guns at VAR further, Laporta added that the technology has been used against Barcelona for quite some time now.
“With this statement, I not only want to express Barcelona’s dissatisfaction with the mismanagement of VAR that happened yesterday, but also I want to emphasize that even though it is a tool that has been with us for some time, it still causes confusion and contradictory standards depending on the matches and teams,” he said.
Laporta even criticised the referee for ignoring some of the actions that might have required the interception of VAR.
“I would like to stress that although we will focus on this Lamine Yamal goal, we also disagree with various actions during the course of the match which, although they could have been consulted in the VAR, were incomprehensibly ignored by the referee,” he added.
Laporta added that Barcelona will do everything it can in order to ‘reverse the result’ in their favour, including seeking legal means.
“We will analyse the whole match against Real Madrid. We will put in place any possibility to reverse the situation, including any judicial actions that may be necessary. We will go further, we do not rule out anything,” he said.
“If it is confirmed that there was a refereeing mistake in Lamine Yamal’s goal yesterday, I don’t rule out asking for El Clásico to be replayed. I want all the images and audio recordings!” he concluded.
