Long After Real Madrid’s Contentious Victory Over Almeria, the VAR Scandal Continues to Spread Throughout Spain

Long after Real Madrid avoided a humiliating defeat at the hands of the poorest club in the Spanish league, the contentious VAR rulings that went in their favor this past weekend continued to have an impact.

Madrid overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat last-place Almeria 3-2 at home on Sunday, avoiding losing points and jeopardizing its championship hopes. The victory came despite three second-half video reviews.

The game had already become one of the most talked-about in Spanish football history when the third VAR decision favored the stronger team over the weaker one. The overturned calls included two handball incidents and were close calls that were susceptible to interpretation.

Almeria defender Marc Pubill said, “Someone decided that we couldn’t win here.”

“We feel like the game was stolen from us,” defender Gonzalo Melero said.

“I don’t have the words to summarize what happened,” said coach Gaizka Garitano. He said he didn’t want to talk much in order to stay out of trouble.

The grievances extended beyond Almeria’s — the Saudi-owned team that lost an opportunity to snap a 21-game losing skid in the Spanish league.

The sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo, published in Barcelona, ran the headline “Robbery” on its main page on Monday. “Referees give the win to Madrid.”

President of Barcelona Joan Laporta took issue with the events that transpired during Madrid’s match.

He said on Monday that “what happened at the Bernabeu was shameful.” The strain that the referees have been under this season requires a response from the refereeing community. We’ll be quite worried if it doesn’t.

“Everyone saw what happened” at the Bernabeu, according to Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández.

“It’s going to be very difficult to win this league,” Xavi said after Barcelona’s victory against Real Betis 4-2 later on Sunday. “There are certain things that I find incomprehensible.”

Both Barcelona and Madrid often accuse one other of receiving preferential treatment from referees in officiating disputes that arise from their rivalry. Barcelona was officially charged last year with paying millions of euros over a number of years to a business owned by the vice president of Spain’s football judging body.

On Sunday, analysts on Real Madrid’s television station said that all of the VAR rulings were accurate and that justice had been served. After the match, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said that although he could see why Almeria was furious, he thought all of the decisions were correct.

In the second half, Madrid was down 2-0 when the VAR calls began to come in. After Vinícius Júnior’s goal was initially disallowed for a handball that the video referee later claimed came off his shoulder, it was awarded a penalty kick for a handball inside the area, making it 2-1. An Almeria goal that would have made it 3-1 was also disallowed for a foul in the buildup. Finally, it got the 2-2 equalizer.

This year, the Spanish league started releasing audio snippets of the VAR’s deliberations after each game. However, Almeria objected, claiming that the referee was not offered the best picture views. It also claimed that during one of the inspections, a potential foul on one of its players was not adequately examined.

The three VAR rulings were “borderline actions and with a lot of interpretation, enough in my opinion for the referee not to overturn his initial decisions,” former referee Alfonso Pérez Burrull told sports newspaper Marca.

Though the outcome won’t alter, the debates around the calls will probably go on for a while in Spain since Madrid will still be vying for the championship and Almeria won’t get its first win.

Almeria said on one of their social media accounts, “Don’t expect us to publish the match report this time.” Everything that occurred is quite clear.