Barcelona Demands Replay of El Clasico Over 'Phantom' Goal Controversy

Joan Laporta, Barcelona's President, has declared that the club will seek a replay of the El Clasico encounter with Real Madrid if Lamine Yamal's disputed 'phantom' goal is conclusively proven to be valid. The fallout arises from the VAR-disallowed Yamal's strike during Barcelona's 3-2 defeat at Real Madrid. The La Liga, currently does not incorporate goal-line technology, a fact highlighted as Yamal's 28th-minute effort, seemingly crossing the line before Real's keeper, Andrey Lunin, cleared it, was subjected to a long VAR review followed by a disallowing of the goal and a decision to award a corner to Barca.

Laporta registered his displeasure with the improper utilization of VAR in such a globally significant event, despite his personal views of VAR curtailing football's spontaneity. He acknowledged the tool's ability to prevent errors leading to wrongful decisions and thus demanded its full deployment.


Despite two equalizers by Vinicius Jr and Lucas Vazquez after Andreas Christensen and Fermin Lopez gave Barca an edge, Jude Bellingham's decider in the dying minutes of the game resulted in Real's fourth consecutive win over the Catalan side. Barcelona now trails by 11 points in the second position with a challenging six games remaining.

Laporta further argued that the use of VAR persistently creates confusion with contradictory criteria varying with the teams and matches. If the comprehensive collection of footage and audio of the incident that Barcelona has requested from the Technical Refereeing Committee at the Spanish Football Federation reveals an error, Barcelona will consider taking legal action and potentially asking for a replay of the match. Barcelona fans have criticized LaLiga for not employing goal-line tech, and Barcelona, slated to host Valencia in LaLiga on April 29, looks determined to rectify what they believe was a 'maximum injustice'.