Sergio Ramos complained to Rubiales about VAR helping Barça
The former Real Madrid captain moaned about the use of VAR in a Barcelona match. The RFEF president defended the independence of the referees.
During his time as captain at Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos sent a series of text messages to RFEF president Luis Rubiales protesting about refereeing and VAR decisions which went in Barcelona’s favour. In response, Rubiales defended the independence of LaLiga’s referees but it appears Ramos did not like the reply.
Spanish outlet El Confidencial have gained access to the text message conversation between Ramos and Rubiales from January 2019. The Madrid captain complained about a decision in Barcelona’s meeting with Leganés at Camp Nou which the Catalans won 3-1. “Rubi, the VAR issue is beginning to seriously worry us, especially with Barça. It’s an absolute disgrace what the referees are doing. Did you see Suárez’s foul on the goalkeeper today in the second goal? It is a joke. A hug,” he protested in a message to Rubiales.
However, Rubiales preferred not to give his opinion, defended the referees and offered Ramos the chance to discuss the matter directly with Velasco Carballo, the man in charge of VAR In LaLiga to understand how the functions: “You have hundreds or thousands of games behind you, and you understand better than most that sometimes there are different opinions about the same incident. As you well know, I do not go into these questions. We work day by day so that the Referees Committee has more resources so that it can become more efficient. For Real Madrid and any of the other clubs who request it, we offer the chance to visit the VAR operations centre and a meeting with Carlos Velasco Carballo to voice any doubts or complaints that may arise”.
A few months earlier, in July 2018, Ramos was keen to know who would be appointed the new coach of the Spanish national team and asked about Francisco Molina, who ended up replacing Fernando Hierro as Director of Sport “Who are you going to appoint as coach? And what about Molina?” Rubiales replied that the decision ( to appoint Luis Enrique) was probably already out in the open and in the media, to which Ramos replied: “Thank you for keeping me informed about the important changes for the national team. I’m sure you’ll tell me all about the new coach, I honestly don’t even know how he thinks, since I haven’t heard anything from him yet”.
