El Clasico: La Liga Releases Conversation Between Referee, VAR Over Barcelona’s Canceled Goal

Football authorities in Spain have released the audio recording of the conversation between the centre referee, Soto Grado, and the Video Assistant Referee over the cancelled Lamine Yamal’s alleged goal during the El Clasico on Sunday, April 21.

On the said date, FC Barcelona visited Real Madrid for the third El Clasico of the season. Barca side were expected to beat Madrid to maintain the pressure on the table-toppers in the title race.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for FC Barcelona as Real Madrid came from behind two times to beat their arch-rivals 3-2 in the El Clasico.

When the scoreline was 1-1, Raphinha crossed the ball into Real Madrid’s penalty box and Lamine Yamal flicked the ball towards the goal-line in the 28th minute and it bounced on Andriy Lunin’s gloves before the goalkeeper managed to push it off the pitch.

FC Barcelona’s players believed the ball had crossed the goal line but the referee thought otherwise as he awarded a corner kick for Barca. But the players’ protest forced the referee to consult the VAR who agreed with him after over two minutes of checks.

Since the end of the controversial El Clasico, there have been different arguments over the disallowed goal. Most people believe that the goal would have stood if Spanish La Liga had goal-line technology.

In line with the argument, FC Barcelona president, Joan Laporta asked the football authorities to release the recordings of the game which they have started doing by releasing the audio recording of the conversation between the centre referee, Soto Grado, and the VAR over the cancelled goal.

Below is the transcript version of the conversation:

Soto Grado: “For me, it doesn’t fit [cross the line] at all.”

VAR: “Let’s check César, wait a little there, don’t let it go.”

Soto Grado: “We put up with it. No, there is no goal technology. We are waiting. We are waiting for the VAR. Maybe it was a goal. We are reviewing. No, there is no goal technology.”

VAR: “Sergio stops at the point of contact when he hits Lunin in the gloves and hits him back. Wait a second because we’re doing a 360 because we don’t have it.”

Soto Grado: “We are waiting. We don’t know.”

VAR: “He’s stopped, he’s covering Lunin’s body, okay? Wait a second. We are still looking for the evidence. 360. This one doesn’t work for me, that one neither, that one neither, this neither, next one, this neither, this neither.”

Soto Grado: “We are not in a hurry. The best thing is to wait. We have to wait.”

VAR: “César, we are going to resume with a corner kick, we have no evidence that the ball has crossed, so it resumes with a corner kick. We don’t have any evidence that the ball has entered. Corner kick.”

Note that FC Barcelona’s president has announced that the side will push for the game to be replayed if they find concrete evidence to push for the rematch.

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