The return to competition has come loaded with controversy. Real Madrid has been able to take advantage of Barça’s bad moment to overcome it in the standings and get the league title on track. But the victories of the whites have been accompanied by arbitral decisions that, right or wrong, have favored them day by day. After seeing Madrid win in Bilbao in a refereeing debate, Josep Maria Bartomeu raised his voice against the VAR: “I am sorry that the best league in the world does not have a fair VAR. After the covid-19 it is not and, even though our results have not been good, it always favors the same team “.
The president of the League, Javier Tebas, said in an interview with the program Our of TV3 that the VAR needs to be modified: “It needs to be improved. We can’t be unaware of the controversy. We are seeing glaring mistakes and we are getting into too many plays.” The president of the League referred to a statement he made in January, in which he confessed that the VAR had changed its criteria after receiving a call from Real Madrid’s top manager, Florentino Pérez: “That a club as important as Real Madrid Madrid can make a call like that twenty minutes after the end of a match is not convenient for the refereeing world. This means that there may be more tension in the referees “, he explained.
And he went further when criticizing Florentino’s complaint: “We must try to get the arbitration team to be the least involved in the controversy, but, of course, if we announce and say that we have spoken with the president of the Real Madrid of the VAR, because it was not the best measure ”. After Florentino’s complaint, Bartomeu’s has now arrived. Before leaving the hotel where the team was resting, in Villarreal, the Barça expedition spoke about the possibility of denouncing refereeing errors in favor of Madrid. The players consulted with the board and Bartomeu decided to break the silence with some actions that have raised dust. Until now, it was Gerard Piqué and Sergio Ramos who had spoken about it most openly.
Incidents in all matches
Of the seven matches played by Real Madrid since the resumption, in six there have been controversial actions. The first of all was with Eibar. Although Madrid won comfortably (3-1), Kroos’ first goal in the 4th minute was checked by the VAR for a possible offside by Benzema. The video arbitration determined that Benzema was online.
The next day the whites received Valencia and the visitors took the lead with a goal from Rodrigo Moreno in the 21st minute. The VAR canceled it out of play by the Spanish-Brazilian. In the second half, Madrid ended up scoring (3-0) with a double by Benzema and a goal by Asensio. But it would be at the Reale Arena where the controversy would ignite. Three refereeing decisions, all three in favor of Madrid, put the whites in the spotlight. A questionable penalty from Llorente to Vinícius in the 46th minute, followed by a goal disallowed in the 62nd minute to Januzaj for a positional offside to Merino, and finally a goal validated to Benzema in the 70th considering that the Frenchman had controlled the ball with the shoulder and not with the arm were decisive to ensure a new victory against Real Sociedad (1-2).
The comfortable victory at home against Mallorca (2-0) was not without controversy. In the first goal, by Vinícius in the 19th minute, the Mallorcans claimed a possible foul by Carvajal on Dani Rodríguez at the start of the play. In fact, the only victory that has not been surrounded by controversial refereeing decisions was in the next match, at Espanyol (0-1).
Because with Getafe, the visitors claimed up to three Carvajal penalties in the first half. First it was Mata who protested a charge of the Madrid player in the area in the 17th minute and shortly after it was Timor who demanded a push when he was about to finish. Just before the break, Carvajal blocked Olivera as the Uruguayan entered the area. And it would be Olivera himself who in the 78th minute would commit the penalty on Carvajal that would give the victory to the whites (1-0). Sergio Ramos did not fail from eleven meters.
The same story was repeated this Sunday during the visit to San Mamés. In the 71st minute, a step by Dani García to Marcelo was punished with a new penalty that Ramos was responsible for transforming. But moments later Ramos himself stepped on Raúl García’s back inside the area and the infraction went unnoticed. When the ball was not in dispute, the VAR could not intervene. Madrid thus achieved its seventh consecutive victory against Athletic Club (0-1) and full of victories, with only four days to go until the end of the championship.
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