Barcelona were left dumbfounded on Sunday night when Robert Lewandowski’s seemingly legal goal was disallowed for offside. A decision that became no clearer as more images became available. Despite the assertions from the Royal Spanish Football Federation and the Referees Committee, their doubts remain.
Sporting Director Deco has voiced as much. Speaking in an interview with MD, Deco questioned the utility of the semi-automatic offside, grouping it with VAR.
“I think that the VAR, and it is not because of this match, has not yet fixed the problems that in theory it was going to fix. Some things have improved, but in others we still have one person’s interpretation. Technology has not yet been able to stay ahead of a human decision. We are still making controversial decisions like Anoeta’s, which is surely not the right one.”
“I don’t understand but if it’s semi-automatic it’s not automatic, someone has to press the button. We are like with a car, we don’t know if it is automatic, if it is hybrid… There is something that should be explained to us. Why is it semi-automatic? I am lost. I still don’t know if the boots were yellow or black… We don’t want to go there because we don’t want to go with excuses. But there is a question: what happened? Where is the error, if there is an error? If not, nothing happens, let them explain to us but they have to explain something because we are a little lost in what the semi-automatic is, if there is influence from the VAR, if the referee can’t really do anything…”
Deco would go on to say that asking for explanations would not change the result of the game at Anoeta, and claimed that he was speaking not from member of the Barcelona technical staff, but as a spectator who wants to see improvements. Deco noted that despite his complaints, Barcelona could not complain due to Real Sociedad’s performance in the summer.
“I don’t know why that depends on the club’s legal department but I think we did make a request but I don’t know what happened. I think that more than complaining we have to try to make football clearer for everyone. It’s not just a Barca issue, it’s a football issue. Tomorrow could be a bad decision for Atletico, against Madrid, Sevilla, Rayo, Valladolid… We are in a moment where we are leaders and maybe it doesn’t hurt us, but imagine that it is a decisive point in a day where it is decided a League, a relegation… ”
“More than complaining and saying that Barca has been harmed, what we would like is to understand. I think this is good for football, for LaLiga and so that it doesn’t happen again to other clubs. Just this. We are not going to be able to complain because we have not lost because of this, they scored and we were not able to tie it and turn it around. But we would like this case to be an example to clarify everything that is happening or to improve it for future cases.”
The Referees Committee have maintained that the images that were broadcast around the world were not the ones used by the Hawkeye system, and that with their 10 extra cameras, they used a different frame for the contact of the ball. However no image of Lewandowski and Real Sociedad defender Nayef Aguerd has emerged that definitively shows the Polish striker offside.