Joan Laporta: 'Tools exist like VAR which should help the competition be fairer and not the other way around'

Joan Laporta made clear to Club media FC Barcelona's position regarding the use of VAR in the Santiago Bernabéu: "As president of FC Barcelona, I would like to put across my dissatisfaction the day after the improper use of a tool such as VAR in one of the most important matches in the global schedule is marking our calendar." 

"As you well know, I have never been a great defender of VAR because I believe that, as it is applied, it takes away football’s spontaneity. But what I am in favour of is that, now that we have it, we always use to avoid errors that can lead to unfair decisions." 

Laporta continued: "In this appearance I am making, I am not only bringing together the unhappiness of Barça fans with the management of VAR yesterday, but also, I am highlighting the fact that even though it is a tool that has been used for a while, it continues to create confusions with contradictory criteria according to matches and teams.  FC Barcelona would also like to highlight the power of our competition and that we are successful and followed by millions of fans around the world, but we cannot be exempt from criticism when the use of VAR undermines our product. " 

On the phantom goal

The FC Barcelona president also touched on the controversial incident in the 28th minute of the game when Real Madrid keeper cleared Lamine Yamal's effort: "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 Commitee 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." 

To conclude, Joan Laporta directly addressed the fans: "Members and Barça fans: the Club’s position is not without foundation nor advantageous, but one that the situation forces us into after having suffered various incidents on the field that have damaged us and other that have benefitted our rival, and that added together reflect the difference in points that there is at the top of the table in La Liga."