4/22/2024-|Last update: 4/22/202408:19 PM (Mecca time)
FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta said – today, Monday – that the club will request a replay of El Clasico against Real Madrid, if it is proven that the match referees made a mistake by not counting the “ghost goal” by Al-Amin Gamal.
The Catalan club, the defending champion, lost to Real Madrid 2-3 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium – yesterday, Sunday – in a match that witnessed controversial events, leaving its arch-rival at the top of the Spanish League by 11 points.
But the most controversial shot was when the young star diverted a ball towards the goal during the first half following a corner kick. It was not clear whether it had actually crossed the goal line or not, before it was cleared by Ukrainian Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.
In light of the absence of goal-line technology in Spain, the referees returned to the assistant referee “VAR” technology in order to resolve the controversy, but the “VAR” referees were unable to confirm the position of the ball after the cameras did not clearly show the truth of the matter, so the match continued without the goal being awarded while it was The score is 1-1.
Laporta demanded that the Spanish Federation and the arbitration committee send all the footage and the incident to his club, as well as audio recordings of the referees’ conversations.
Laporta explained – in a video clip published by Barcelona – “If the club realizes, once the documents are analyzed, that there was an error in evaluating the shot, as we believe happened, we will take all necessary steps to reverse the situation, without excluding any legal action that may be necessary.”
President @JoanLaportaFCB: “There are tools like VAR that should help to have a fairer competition and not the other way around” pic.twitter.com/qdmav3BP3e
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 22, 2024
He added, “If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, as we believe, we will go further and ask for a replay, as happened in another European match due to a VAR error.”
The Barcelona president relied on a match between Anderlecht and Genk in the Belgian first division in January, which was replayed after an error in applying the laws of the game.
In turn, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said that it was a “shame” for Spanish football not to use goal-line technology.
Laporta also criticized the “misuse” of VAR in general, saying there appeared to be “contradictory criteria” for its intervention depending on the teams involved.
Barcelona’s request for two penalty kicks was rejected during the Clásico loss due to two fouls on Jamal and Fermin Lopez.
