Joan Laporta released a statement confirming Barça's position regarding the refereeing team's performance in the classic match with Real Madrid. If it can be proven that the potential goal by Lamine Yamal should have been validated, the Catalan club will request a replay of the match.
Embed from Getty Images
Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona, issued a statement on Monday criticizing the officiating, particularly what they consider to be an ineffective use of VAR, in the classic match with Real Madrid, played on Sunday and which ended in a 3-2 victory for Real Madrid.
"As the president of FC Barcelona, I would like to express my dissatisfaction the day after the misuse of a tool like VAR in one of the most important games on the global calendar that is marking our schedule. As you well know, I have never been a great advocate of VAR because I believe that, as it is applied, it takes away the spontaneity from football. However, I am in favor of using it now that we have it, always to avoid errors that can lead to unfair decisions. In my statement, I am not only gathering the dissatisfaction of Barça fans with the management of VAR yesterday, but also highlighting the fact that, despite being a tool used for some time, it continues to create confusion with contradictory criteria depending on the games and the teams. FC Barcelona would also like to emphasize the strength of our competition and the fact that we are successful and followed by millions of fans around the world, but we cannot be exempt from criticism when the use of VAR harms our product," he stated.
Next, he addressed the most controversial play of the match - Lamine Yamal took a shot, Lunin made the save, and it was unclear whether the ball had fully crossed the goal line or not. He promised to request a replay of the game if it can be proven that the goal should have been validated.
"We understand the difficulties that referees face, but that is precisely why tools like VAR exist they should help make the competition fairer, not the opposite. Yesterday, there were several disputable incidents, but among them, there is one that is crucial and could change the outcome of the game. I am referring to Lamine's 'ghost goal.' As a club, we want to be sure of what happened, and for this reason, FC Barcelona will immediately request from the Technical Committee of Refereeing of the Spanish Football Federation a thorough collection of the images and audio of the incident. If, once this documentation is analyzed, the club believes that an error was made in reviewing the incident, we will take all available measures to reverse the situation, not ruling out any necessary legal action. If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, we will move forward and do not dismiss requesting a replay of the game, as has already happened in another game in Europe due to a VAR error. Finally, I would like to emphasize that, although we are focusing on this incident, we also disagree with several others that occurred during the game and could have been reviewed using VAR," he emphasized.
The official concluded with a message for the Culé fans: "Members and supporters of Barça: the club's position is neither baseless nor advantageous, but rather one that the situation compels us to take after having suffered various incidents on the field that have harmed us and others that have benefited our rival, which together reflect the point difference at the top of the La Liga table."
