VAR chief speaks out on Robert Lewandowski controversy after Barcelona defeat

Carlos Clos Gómez, the director of VAR for the Referees Technical Committee in Spain, has spoken out amid the controversy surrounding the decision to disallow a goal for Robert Lewandowski during Barcelona’s clash with Real Sociedad on Sunday.

Lewandowski saw his effort ruled out for offside, although the images appear to show an error was made.

Gomez has now been asked about the incident but insists the technology is correct and explained how it’s used to measure offside.

“It’s a normal explanation. There was a possible offside, the technology came in and it was assessed as offside, there’s little else to say. Technology comes to help football, to refereeing and, in this case, it also helped,” he told Marca. “Many times it is criticised out of ignorance. It works with 10 additional cameras, which the production does not have, there are 29 points tracked on each of the players, one of the points is the foot of each of the footballers and it went offside, the referee was informed and the decision taken was changed. “Nothing new, that does not happen in each of the First and Second Division matches. In refereeing we are used to criticism.”

Glos’s comments are unlikely to appease Barcelona. Several players, including Raphinha, have made it clear what they think of the decision, while Hansi Flick certainly thinks the goal should have stood and feels the officials made a mistake.

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