Atlético Madrid Expresses Displeasure Over VAR Interventions Against Real Madrid and Barcelona
Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, CEO of Atlético Madrid, has expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the operation of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology during his team's recent matches. He highlighted that the club has suffered clear refereeing injustices in their encounters against Real Madrid and Barcelona, criticizing VAR officials for overstepping their authority by intervening in decisions that originally fall under the purview of the on-field referee. According to Gil Marín, this has led to significant discontent within the Madrid club.
In a related context, the Spanish official emphasized that the scope of VAR intervention should be limited to correcting "unquestionable errors." Gil Marín stated: "VAR should only intervene to correct inexplicable errors, not to decide instead of the main referee." He also criticized the inconsistency in decisions made in similar situations, citing incidents from the past two rounds of the Spanish league.
The CEO further explained: "It is not normal for different decisions to be made in identical plays, where the criteria are changed, and we don't know what to expect. This makes no sense at all."
Gil Marín specifically addressed the incident involving the overturned red card for player Gerard Martín as an example of the club's objections, considering it proof of inconsistent standards applied by those operating the VAR technology.
In this regard, he referred to the audio recordings from the VAR room published by the Spanish Football Federation, explaining that listening to them is embarrassing. He said: "When we see the images and hear the recordings shared by the Federation, we cannot help but feel ashamed. It is unacceptable for us to hear comments that completely contradict what the correct operation of the technology should be, without any change occurring."
To further support his stance, the CEO recalled previous clarifications provided by the Referees' Technical Committee regarding a similar incident in a match between Real Betis and Rayo Vallecano, where the committee had then confirmed that a red card should have been shown.
Gil Marín believes that the continued lack of consistency in refereeing standards confuses both clubs and fans. He called for an end to this technology overstepping its defined functions within international refereeing protocols.
