Why is there no goal-line technology in La Liga?

Although the team will play against Sociedad tomorrow, it is worth talking a little about this goal line technology.

The goal/no goal situation that happened in the match against Barcelona at the weekend must be familiar to everyone. Yamal spun into the ball from the corner, which Lunin knocked out, but based on the camera images, it was questionable whether the ball crossed the goal line. The game stopped. And César Soto Grado, the referee of the match, immediately pointed his ears to the VAR room.

“We will look at all the cameras in 360, because we don’t see them yet. The body covers the ball.” – the information came from the room.

“There is no need to hurry, this is a very important decision. It is best to wait.” Soto Grado responded.

“We looked at everything, we don’t have a picture that clearly proves that the ball crossed the goal line completely, César. So a corner is coming.” José María Sánchez Martínez concluded the question from the VAR room.

The referee paid attention to the VAR room because in La Liga, the only one among the top leagues in Europe, goal line technology is not used. There is a very simple reason for this, the president of the league, Javier Tebas, does not feel it is a profitable investment, while the technology has been present in England, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands for almost 10 years.

Goal-line technology uses approx. It would cost the league 4 million euros, but according to Tebas, a technology that is used relatively rarely and is still not 100% accurate is not worth that much. The other reason, according to Tebas, is that “there is VAR, which can be used in 99% of cases to decide doubtful situations”.

Pay raise: yes, goal line technology: no

The day after the match, I read that Laporta, in his completely ridiculous statement addressed to no one but the fans’ soul-warming, demands the VAR video and audio materials and even a replay of the match from the league. Another robbery, the judge hits them again. This is what the president of the club against whom a court case is going on says, because for 18 years the vice president of the judicial body was asked for advice. This is a fact, but surely the Spanish court is also in Pérez’s hands.

Laporta’s criticism of VAR and Tebas’ position regarding goal-line technology are also interesting because in October 2023, the first and second division clubs voted unanimously to raise Tebas’ salary. Two clubs voted against the increase: Real Madrid and another club. Thus, the league president’s salary rose from 3.36 million euros to 5.4 million euros per year.

Javier Tebas’ salary is already in the same category as Xavi’s from Barcelona. Moreover, with this increase, he earns more than UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

By the way, Tebas responded to the criticism on X after the match. He print-screened the titles of old articles about how goal-line technology is not perfect, makes a lot of mistakes, is expensive, etc., and then added: without comment. Then he also ran into that particular forest, as several Community Notes were approved under his post after a few hours.

For those who don’t know, this means that anyone on X can add such Community Notes to any post if they feel that the post contains misleading or false statements and can prove it. This is then evaluated by several users from different points of view, and if it passes the filter, it is placed under the post.

Tebas also receives such an addition, which said: “The articles linked by Mr. Tebas are from several years ago, and the technology is worth a maximum of 4 million euros, which is much less than Mr. Tebas’ salary.” At the moment, it reads that a “pictured, a 2018 article claims that Ligue 1 suspended goal-line technology while only changing providers and it has been in use ever since”.

So the salary went up, and even then goal-line technology was taken off the agenda for the reasons detailed above. The raise, which recognized Tebas’ work, was also voted by Barcelona last year, but now they are still talking about VAR fraud.

And it’s terrifying that this “robbery, fraud, everything is controlled by Real Madrid” narrative spreads with gusto in Barça and non-Barça circles. I don’t understand why, instead of blaming the state of the field, the referee, the height of the grass, Franco’s spirit(!) and other external factors, you can’t exercise self-criticism and realize that they defended poorly, one or two players played poorly, Xavi is not good tactics or God forbid that the opponent was better. Well, I read such a comment, all due respect.

Because you can use VAR here, but the rule is still a rule: if there is no clear evidence that the ball crossed the goal line with its FULL EXTENT, then there is no goal.

It seems that this was exactly the 1% that VAR is not good for. However, 1% is only worth something if you are two goals down in the 88th minute of the BL semi-final and Real Madrid are calling.

Source: RFEF, GOAL, El Larguero, penamadridista.hu