On Tuesday, the Referees Committee of the Spanish Football Federation announced its official ruling regarding the controversial refereeing shot that occurred in the match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, which was held last Saturday in the Spanish League competitions.
The match, which was the first of three meetings between the two teams this April, witnessed great debate due to the intervention of the video assistant technology and the decision to cancel the red card given to Barcelona player Gerard Martin.
Referee Busquets Ferrer had shown the red card after Martin stepped on Almada’s ankle while trying to pass the ball, but Melero Lopez from the VAR room intervened and asked to review the shot, which resulted in the penalty being changed from expulsion to warning.
According to the newspaper “AS”, the referees’ committee acknowledged, in the program “Tiempo de Revisión”, that the video technology was not supposed to intervene in this case, and confirmed that the correct decision was to keep the red card.
The committee said: “This is a serious case of rough play, regardless of who touched the ball first. The correct disciplinary sanction is a red card.”
The committee also stressed that the referee should have adhered to his original decision, and considered that the video room’s recommendation for review led to an incorrect change of a sound decision taken on the field.
The committee made a comparison between this shot and a similar situation in the match between Real Betis and Rayo, noting that it also deserved a red card.
