The story of the week has been Real Madrid’s 3-2 win over Almeria, featuring yet another remarkable comeback from Los Blancos. But not due to their heroics – the three VAR decisions have dominated the headlines since, with no shortage of reaction.
Los Blancos benefitted from three VAR interventions which helped overturn on-field decisions, leading to a disallowed goal from Sergio Arribas for Almeria, a penalty for Real Madrid, and a goal for Vinicius Junior.
Gerard Romero has leaked the audio from the VAR room, where during the audio it can be heard that the VAR assistant did not show the referee all of the angles ahead of him making his decision on the Vinicius goal. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have since submitted a legal complaint to the police over the leaking of the material.
🎙 AUDIO REVISIÓN VAR
🗓️ Jornada 21 | Real Madrid – Almería
‼ Así fue la revisión ENTERA del VAR tras el gol de Vinicius con una supuesta mano
🗣 "Mano no hay. Falta en ataque no hay. Y la mano, Fran, le da en el hombro, ¿vale? "
🔗 Lo vemos en https://t.co/OGW0AKAWMl pic.twitter.com/uoXI03CHOg
— Jijantes FC (@JijantesFC) January 23, 2024
Now, Cadena SER report that internally at the Referees Committee (CTA) recognise that two errors were made during the match. They admit that the penalty given to Real Madrid did not take into account the actions of Antonio Rudiger and Joselu Mato, which should have been given as fouls, and were not reviewed by Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez.
In the case of the Vinicius goal, they say that the error of Hernandez was calling the on-field referee for a review when the cameras do not show clearly that it was Vinicius’ shoulder that put the ball in and not his arm – that is to say, it was not clear and obvious.
This is only likely to further fuel the controversy. Few sides are covering themselves in glory. The leaking of the audio does not aid the competition in any way, and raises questions over who has access to it. Meanwhile Almeria players are likely to be banned for multiple games for their comments on the refereeing, when the CTA agrees with them.
