• Chronicle Espanyol resists the sentence (3-3)

LaLiga is piling up with imbroglios. Espanyol has decided to contest the match against Atlético played on Wednesday night in Cornellà and that ended in a draw (3-3) to understand that the VAR conceded a goal to the rojiblancos (the 0-2 of Griezmann) without the image used was conclusive to determine if the ball crossed the goal line.

The Spanish competition does not have the automatic goal detection system, whose implementation has a price of about four million euros (adding the First and Second Division). That is why he uses the images available in the VOR room.

Espanyol, antepenultimate of the classification and three points of salvation in the absence of two days, considers "violated their rights" to understand the existence of a "serious negligent action by the arbitration collective, and specifically by the VAR referees", and requests the Competition Committee the "nullity" of the meeting, in addition to threatening legal action for the "possible patrimonial damage derived". Mario Melero López, the main referee of the match, did not concede a goal in the first instance. From the VAR, José Luis González González invited the referee to correct his first perception.

Espanyol is protected in what happened this week with Vinicius, to whom the Competition Committee withdrew the red card shown for assaulting Hugo Duro in the duel against Valencia, marked by racist insults to the Real Madrid player, and the accelerated process of contrition. "We consider that a precedent has been established that sets a new paradigm in the administration of sports justice in Spanish football, by intervening the Competition Committee in decisions previously refereed on the field and in the VAR (...). This Committee understood that in an action of that meeting the use of technology and available images by the VAR referees 'was totally partial, biased and determinant of the referee's error in the assessment of what happened'. Derived from all of the above, it was decided to withdraw a red card shown to a player."

After Espanyol reached the tie after matching Atletico a three-goal disadvantage, the blue and white club asked the Technical Committee of Referees for the image or sequence in which it was clearly seen that the ball had crossed the goal line in Griezmann's 0-2. Carlos Clos Gómez, responsible for the VAR project in Spain, did not provide it, relying on a regulation that prevents them from being provided. But, according to Espanyol, [Clos Gómez] "confirmed that the image used to annul the referee's decision and validate Atletico's second goal was the one shown in the television production, the one known as spider cam".

Espanyol understands that with this image, the same one that viewers saw, "it is impossible to determine whether or not the ball enters in its entirety." In fact, the blue and white club maintains that, according to its own and "third party" analyses, the ball "does not cross the goal line in its entirety at any time". This leads the club chaired by the toy businessman Chen Yansheng to state that the VAR protocol has been breached by "correcting an arbitration decision without having a single conclusive evidence", thus producing "an adulteration of the match".

  • RCD Espanyol
  • Atletico Madrid

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