Barcelona board HAMMER VAR for negative impact on their results and favouring Real Madrid

On Monday, LaLiga giants Barcelona released a statement bashing the use of VAR (Video Assistant Referee) for their 3-1 El Clasico defeat against Real Madrid over the weekend. The Catalan outfit were left fuming after a penalty was awarded for a shirt pull by Clement Lenglet on Sergio Ramos in the second half of the game. In their statement, the Barcelona board claimed that VAR is having a negative impact on the club's results which has led to their closest rivals benefitting from the new technology. 

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El Clasico 2020: Barcelona vs Real Madrid controversy

The El Clasico fixture at the Camp Nou on Saturday proved to be quite a spectacle for neutrals but Barcelona were angered by a VAR incident that played a crucial role in the outcome of the game. Fede Valverde opened the scoring for Real Madrid just five minutes into the game before Ansu Fati equalised for the hosts three minutes later. However, the controversial moment in the game came just after the hour mark when Sergio Ramos had his shirt pulled by Clement Lenglet in the Barcelona penalty box. 

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According to reports from Sport, Barcelona are still furious over the incident being deemed a penalty because referee Martinez Munuera’s assistant advised it was not a foul as “Sergio Ramos had fouled Clement Lenglet first”. However, the referee did not pay any attention to the VAR and pointed to the spot. Sergio Ramos then converted from the resultant spot-kick to make it 2-1 and Luka Modric came off the bench to seal the win late in the game. 

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Barcelona VAR issue: Club's board blasts use of new technology

In a statement released on Monday, the Barcelona board, including president Josep Maria Bartomeu, slammed the use of VAR following Real Madrid's controversial El Clasico win. The Blaugrana board expressed their confidence in the use of VAR but stated their strong disagreement in its application. "The Board considers that, in the cases of identical or very similar game situations, VAR has not upheld the essential criteria of ethics and fairness, which has had a serious negative impact on FC Barcelona and has benefitted its most direct opponents."

Barcelona were quite clearly unhappy with the use of VAR in El Clasico and urged the Spanish Football Federation to take immediate action and unify the criteria of interpretation and application of the technology. Following defeat in El Clasico, Barcelona are now in 12th place in the LaLiga table with seven points from five games. On the other hand, Real Madrid are now in second place with 13 points from six games. 

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Image Credits - Real Madrid Instagram / AP