Barcelona president Joan Laporta has demanded that the Spanish football federation (RFEF) take drastic action after the El Clasico controversy.
Real Madrid emerged 3-2 winners against Barcelona at the Bernabeu on Sunday with Jude Bellingham scoring a last-gasp goal to put Los Blancos 11 points clear of their rivals with just six league games to go.
But there was a moment of controversy in the 28th minute when Lamine Yamal struck from a corner with the ball appearing to cross the line. Real goalkeeper Andrey Lunin scrambled to clear it away, hitting the post before the ball trickled off the pitch.
After a lengthy VAR check, the goal was not given with LaLiga not possessing goal-line technology. A corner was awarded to Barcelona instead.
Barca chief Laporta was left furious and said in a statement on Monday: “We understand the difficulty faced by officials, but it is for that reason that such tools exist (like VAR) which should help the competition be fairer and not the other way around.
“Yesterday, there were several debatable incidents but amongst all of them there is one that is crucial and can change the result of the game.
“I am referring to the ‘phantom goal’ by Lamine. As a club we want to be sure about what happened, and it is for that reason that from FCB we will make an immediate request to the Technical Refereeing Committee at the Spanish Football Federation for a comprehensive collection of footage and audio from the incident.
“If once this documentation has been analysed, the club understands that an error was made in the revision of the incident, we will take all available measure to reverse the situation, without discounting, obviously, any necessary legal action.
“If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, we will move ahead and we do not discount requesting that the game be replayed, just as has happened in another game in Europe due to a VAR error.
“Finally, I would like to underline that despite our focus on this incident, we also disagree with various others that occurred during the game, and that could have been reviewed using VAR.”
Laporta was referring to a Belgian Pro League match between Anderlecht and Genk when it was announced that the match would be replayed due to an error from VAR. A disciplinary council for professional football in Belgium ruled that Genk were treated unfairly and ruled in favour of a replay on the grounds of a misapplication of the laws of the game.
It is the first of its kind to ever happen in Europe and Laporta hopes that the same rules will apply to his side, though the two nations have different football association laws.
LaLiga is the only ‘top-five’ league in Europe that does not use goal-line technology and the league have come under heavy criticism for lacking the tech.
Barca boss Xavi was equally as critical of the referees on Sunday, saying: “My feeling today is one of maximum injustice. Goes without saying, everyone saw it. My feeling is that today’s match was not fair.”
