César Soto Grado and his VAR assistants make a big call with a controversial penalty against Aurélien Tchouaméni during the 23rd round of La Liga between Real Madrid and Atlético. After the match, the exchange between the referee and the video assistant is revealed.
“VAR awarded the penalty. The referee was very close to the action and saw exactly what happened. I saw a similar penalty in the Athletic-Girona match. People in football don’t understand this,” criticised Carlo Ancelotti in front of the media after his team’s 1-1 draw against Atlético Madrid.
In the race for the top spot in La Liga, Real Madrid had to fight hard to come back and equalise after a debatable penalty was awarded by referee César Soto Grado in the 33rd minute. While the game was generally flowing well, an incident in the penalty area, where Aurélien Tchouaméni was challenging for the ball against an Atlético player, led to a penalty decision.
The dramatic exchange between the referee and the VAR team
Lino, the Colchoneros player, had no control over the ball, which had already slipped away from him. Nevertheless, the VAR officials called the on-field referee to review the footage. This decision did not sit well with Mateu Lahoz, a former renowned La Liga referee, who argued that there should not have been a penalty in order to preserve the nature of football as a contact sport. In the end, the Madrid defender was deemed guilty of the foul that led to the opening goal, and the conversation between the referees has now been made public.
According to Spanish outlet Relevo, which referenced footage from Movistar, the official broadcaster of La Liga, César Soto Grado requested multiple angles of the incident before making his decision. Unfortunately, the VAR officials only had one image clearly showing the contact between the two players.
“I need more images; I need a better view,” the on-field referee asked during the review process. “There are no other images,” the VAR team responded. With no other footage available, Soto Grado had no choice but to make his decision based on the single image he was shown. “Okay. I can see that he (Tchouaméni) stepped on him. That’s a penalty. I’m giving it,” he decided before returning to the pitch. The rest is history.
As Lahoz pointed out, before awarding a penalty, the entire sequence of play, particularly the initial phase of the action, should have been analysed thoroughly. However, with insufficient footage available, the referee was forced to rely on a single frame to penalise the Real Madrid defender. If referees continue to whistle for every contact inside the box, football—a contact sport—could become a nightmare for defenders.
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