Barcelona celebrated what very much looked like the death knell in the La Liga title race on Sunday, topping Real Madrid 4-3 at Montjuic to open up a seven-point gap between the two with three games to go. However the Blaugrana were not happy with the officiating on Sunday.
After the ‘just as well’ comment sparked further Barcelona fury, another snippet of audio from the discussions between the referee Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez and Juan Martinez Munuera has sparked further ire. Hernandez Hernandez was called to review the incident of a possible penalty against Aurelien Tchouameni in the 80th minute.
🗣️ AUDIO REVISIÓN VAR
🗓️ Jornada 35 | Primera División
⚽️ @FCBarcelona_es 🆚 @realmadrid | 80'#ArbitrajeRFEF | @CTARFEF
— RFEF (@rfef) May 11, 2025
During the audio, Martinez Munuera tells Hernandez Hernandez that there were no more angles of the incident, while viewers across the world witnessed six different angles of it, with Hernandez Hernandez being shown just two.
“Okay, Alex, there’s the image, okay? It’s a shot on goal, and we don’t have many more powerful cameras. Stop it, Carlos (director), right now,” says Martinez.
Ig story Ferran.
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) May 11, 2025
“The distance between your arm and your body. Stop it there, give me one from behind please, ‘high behind’, give me whatever you have,” replies Hernandez.
“Let’s see what we have there because it wasn’t very clear because it was being blocked by the goal,” responds Martinez.
“A wide-angle one, please. That’s a great one,” continues Hernandez. “For me, Courtois is behind. Give it one more frame, that’s when the impact occurs, his arm is down. It’s not a penalty for me, Juan,” he concludes.
At the same time as the review was ongoing, MD note that viewers around the world were shown a total of six different angles of the incident, in comparison to the two given to Hernandez Hernandez.
Those extra angles, as highlighted kindly by Ferran Torres on his Instagram, show Tchouameni’s arm further from his body than in the other two angles.
That was one of four incidents that Barcelona were unhappy about, including the decision not to send off Tchouameni in the first half, the call to disallow Fermin Lopez’s stoppage time goal, and not to allow Kylian Mbappe’s first goal, claiming a foul in the build-up. Regardless of the specifics of the decisions, it is certainly confusing that the referees would only be given two angles of the incident while the rest of the world can see six different shots.
