Barcelona players sway the referee: VAR 'on demand' in Betis's disallowed goal!

A sarcastic comment from a veteran referee

New footage from Barcelona's clash with Real Betis has reopened the debate over Giovani Lo Celso's disallowed goal. The recording lays bare the conversation between the referee and the Catalan players during the review, an episode that has drawn fierce criticism over the way the video technology check was requested.

This time the row stems from a comment by former Spanish referee Iturralde Gonzalez. He took aim, according to a report in the newspaper Marca, at a phrase picked up in the recordings, arguing it opens the door to what he sarcastically branded "VAR on demand". Barcelona won the match 5-2.

Repeated objections from Barcelona's players

Released by the Spanish league association through the camera of referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, the footage showed a number of Barcelona players insisting the referee award a handball against Colombian Cucho Hernandez during the attack that ended with Lo Celso's goal, later chalked off.

Pedri led the protests. He told the referee the handball was clear, while De Burgos insisted from the outset that he had seen nothing worthy of an offence.

Other players piled in, Lamine Yamal and Fermin Lopez among them, as the argument raged over whether Cucho had used his hand to control the ball.

At one point the referee turned to video technology official Carlos del Cerro Grande and said: "Review the handball for me, that's what they are asking of me, Cerro", the phrase now at the heart of the new criticism.

Iturralde Gonzalez pounced on the phrase on "X", writing: "We have just discovered VAR on demand. Review this clip for me because they are asking me to."

His objection cuts to the principle of how incidents are reviewed. For Iturralde, players demanding a check on a specific moment should never dictate when the video technology steps in. The job of deciding whether an incident warrants review belongs to the officiating team, in line with the procedures in place.

Acabamos de descubrir el VAR a la carta. Chequeame esto que me piden. https://t.co/A9kSEhkitO

De Burgos asked to review the whole sequence, including the phase before Lo Celso's shot, before disallowing the goal for the handball by Cucho at the start of the move.

So the debate no longer stops at the decision to rule the goal out. It now stretches to the exchange that preceded the check, with the referee's phrase drawing fire from Iturralde and reopening the questions over where players' protests end and the procedures governing video technology begin.