VAR: Referees' chat in Vinicius-Rulli penalty incident revealed
Spain's referees' chief has revealed details of what the Real Madrid-Real Sociedad officials said to each other in the controversial incident.
Spain's referees' chief has revealed details of the conversation between the on-field match official and his video assistant when Real Madrid's Vinicius was contentiously denied a penalty in Los Blancos' defeat to Real Sociedad this month.
Carlos Velasco Carballo was speaking to the media in the wake of recent controversies surrounding the video-assistant-referee (VAR) system - which is in its first season in LaLiga - including its failure to award a spot-kick for what Madrid felt was a foul on the Brazilian by Sociedad goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli.
Madrid left fuming after Vinicius penalty non-award
At Tuesday's press conference in Madrid, Velasco Carballo played a recording of the interactions between referee José Luis Munuera Montero and video assistant referee Mario Melero López (which is available above, in Spanish) as the incident unfolded at the Bernabéu.
Immediately after Munuera Montero opts against giving a penalty for Rulli's challenge on Vinicius, Melero López can be heard saying, "I want to see that again, don't let him [Munuera Montero] re-start play [after the next stoppage]."
He then asks VAR technical staff to show him further replays of the incident - "slower, let me see another, and don't let him re-start play" - before finally concluding: "Nothing doing, play on... all good, José Luis."
Ramos labels VAR role in incident "scandalous"
Real Madrid were left incensed by the non-award, with captain Sergio Ramos branding VAR's failure to overturn Munuera Montero's initial decision as "scandalous", and the European champions' director of institutional relations, Emilio Butragueño, adding: "What is VAR for?"
Read also: Indignant Pérez threatens to quit Spanish FA over recent VAR controversies