Laporta will demand for El Clásico replay if Yamal’s ‘ghost goal’ is confirmed as valid

The dust has barely settled on Sunday night’s El Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu with the main point of controversy from the game already creating ripples in Barcelona with these ripples potentially becoming tidal waves.

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In the 28th minute of the game, Lamine Yamal deflected a Raphinha corner goal bound with the effort scooped out of the goal by Real Madrid keeper Lunin. The game was paused with the Barcelona players claiming that the ball had crossed the line and after a series of VAR reviews, the goal was disallowed after none of the camera angles proved conclusively that the ball had indeed crossed the line.

Madrid went on to win the Game 3-2 with the victory ending any outside hopes the Catalan side had a mustering a serious title race.

After the match, Barça keeper Ter Stegen blasted LaLiga for not having goal-line technology with many top leagues using a hawk-eye system with its technology being able to determine in an instant if the entire circumference of the ball crosses the line or not.

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FC Barcelona have now added their weight to the debate with club president Joan Laporta issuing a four minute message via the club’s social media channels.

Laporta communique

Dear Culés and soccer fans in general, as president of Futbol Club Barcelona, I want to convey my dissatisfaction that the day after one of the most important matches in the global Game, the misuse of a tool like the VAR is making the headlines. As you well know, I have never been a great defender of VAR because I believe that the way it is applied, it takes away spontaneity from soccer.

But, since we have it, it should be used to avoid mistakes that could lead to unfair decisions. With this message, I do not only want to reflect the discomfort of the Barcelonistas for the mismanagement that was made yesterday of the VAR, but to emphasize that despite being a tool that has been with us for some time, it continues to cause confusion and contradictory criteria.

As president of Futbol Club Barcelona, I also want to highlight the power of our comPetition and underline that we are a successful comPetition and followed by millions of fans in all parts of the world. But that does not mean that we are immune to criticism when the use of VAR undervalues our comPetition.

We all understand the difficulty of the refereeing task, but that is precisely why there are tools like the VAR that should help to have a fairer competition and not the other way around. Yesterday there were several debatable plays, but among all of them there is one that is essential and that could have changed the final result of the match. In fact, we think it did. I am referring to Lamine’s ‘ghost goal’.

As a club we want to be sure about what happened and that is why I inform you that, Futbol Club Barcelona will immediately request the Technical Committee of Referees and the Spanish Football Federation to provide us with all the images and audios that generated from the incident. If once this documentation has been analyzed, the club understands that there was an error in the appreciation of the play, as we think, we will take all the appropriate actions to reverse the situation, without ruling out the necessary legal actions.

If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, as we think it was, we will go further and ask for a replay of the match as has happened in some European matches as a result of a VAR error. In addition, I want to emphasize that although we will focus on this incident, we also disagree with several decisions that occurred during the course of the match and that could have been consulted in the VAR booth.

Barça fans. This action by the club is neither gratuitous nor advantageous, but an action that we must employ before the situation that we have been forced to experience and for having suffered this season numerous erroneous decisions in the field of play that have harmed us and others that have benefited our rival and that added both, show that distance of points that there is at the top of the league table.

Thank you very much.