Barcelona President Joan Laporta has requested that the club immediately be provided with the documentation from the referee’s report and the audio and visuals from the VAR room during their 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid. Laporta feels there was a manifest error in the decision not to give the ghost goal Lamine Yamal thought he had scored.
Laporta released a statement from Barcelona’s official social media accounts requesting the materials, and stating that if there was an error from the refereeing team, they will pursue legal action in order to have the game replayed.
“From Barcelona Football Club we will immediately request the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) and the RFEF to provide us with all the images and audio generated by the play (of Lamine Yamal’s ghost goal). If, once the documentation has been analysed, the club understands that there was an error in the assessment of the play, which is what we think, we will implement the appropriate measures that are necessary to reverse the situation without, obviously, ruling out judicial situations that may arise. If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal as we think, we will go further and ask for a replay of the match just as happened in another European match due to a VAR error.”
“As president of Barca, I want to convey the dissatisfaction caused by the fact that, one day after one of the most important matches on the world calendar, a tool such as VAR is setting our agenda. I have never been one of the great defenders of VAR because it takes away spontaneity from the game. But, since we have it, I am in favour of using it to avoid errors that lead to unfair decisions, rather than creating confusion and showing contradictory criteria depending on the games and the teams.”
Laporta cites another European competition, which MD point out is referring to a game between Genk and Anderlecht in Belgium, which will be replayed at the end of the regular season due to a VAR error. Laporta went on to claim that VAR is not achieving its goal to correct refereeing errors, but rather causing more incorrect decisions.
