Atletico Madrid’s 2-1 loss to Barcelona on Saturday was overshadowed by a controversial decision from the Riyadh Metropolitan Aviation refereeing team. Gerard Martin was sent off for a foul on Thiago Almada minutes into the second half, a decision that was later downgraded to a yellow card after a VAR review.
Atletico were furious at the decision, especially considering they themselves were reduced to 10 men before half-time. They have lodged a complaint with the Referees Technical Committee (CTA) and CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marin has now chosen to speak publicly on the matter.
advertise
According to “Diario AS”, Gil Marin expressed disappointment with the way the Spanish Football Federation handled the matter.
“When we see the images shared by the federation and listen to the audio, all that’s left is shame. There’s no way they’re going to let us listen to their comments, which completely goes against the correct function of VAR and nothing happens. Referees have the same right to make mistakes as players, coaches and managers, but mistakes in the game are mistakes. The other thing is that the VAR referee affects the referee when he judges an action.”
Gil Marin: It’s not normal for standards to change
Gil Marin believes that VAR has no power to interfere with the original decision made by on-field referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer because he did not consider the red card to be a clear error.
advertise
“On-field referees must take responsibility and make decisions that interpret everyone’s intentions. VAR should only step in to correct unexplained errors and not make decisions for the referee. It’s not normal for standards to change and we don’t know what will happen. This has happened to us in the last two games. It makes no sense.”
Gil Marin holds CTA accountable for ‘inconsistency’
Gil Marin used an example given by the referee’s committee to support his argument that Martin should have been shown a red card. The CTA recently noted that a similar challenge from Real Betis’ Valentin Gomez should have resulted in the sacking, which is why Atletico couldn’t understand Saturday’s decision.
“The worst thing is that the CTA themselves explained a game a few days ago and guaranteed that the problem should be solved by showing a red card, and yesterday in the same game the referee made the right decision and VAR caused an error that went beyond their duties. Those things that had been explained to the players, coaches and managers, unfortunately were not fulfilled.”
