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A puzzling disagreement among refereeing experts… Did Gerard Martin deserve to be sent off against Atlético?

Saturday evening’s match between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona saw a number of controversial refereeing decisions, which are in keeping with recent trends in La Liga, where most clubs have been complaining about the officials.

Barcelona beat Atlético Madrid 2-1, with veteran Robert Lewandowski having the final say as he secured the three precious points for Barça in the 87th minute.

This victory is worth double points – in theory – particularly as it enabled Barcelona (76 points) to extend their lead over second-placed Real Madrid to seven points, following the latter’s defeat today against Mallorca, with eight matches remaining in the season.

A controversial refereeing decision
The start of the second half saw a controversial refereeing decision, with Spanish referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer sending off young defender Gerard Martin for a heavy challenge on Atlético’s Tiago Almada in the centre of the pitch.
The TV replay showed that Martín played the ball first, before his leg struck Almada’s ankle with force.
The incident sparked strong protests from Atlético manager Diego Simeone, who initially celebrated the decision – as the scores were level following Nicolás González’s sending-off at the end of the first half – before exploding with anger at the subsequent reversal.
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On the other hand, Barcelona manager Hans Flick expressed his satisfaction after the referee consulted the VAR room, with Busquets Ferrer heading to the screen at the side of the pitch, and the decision ultimately being to rescind the red card and replace it with a yellow, allowing Gerard Martin to remain on the pitch.

A baffling contradiction! A courageous decision
As usual, the opinions of analysts and refereeing experts were divided over the incident involving Gerard Martin against Atlético Madrid tonight.
Asubio, a refereeing expert at the Spanish newspaper El Desmarque, said the referee’s decision was correct.
He explained that the referee and the VAR team were guided by an official circular issued by the Spanish Referees’ Committee, which clarifies such challenges involving strong contact between players after the ball has been played.
According to Asubio, this circular states that “if a player is unable to pull his leg back, this is not necessarily considered a ‘foul warranting a straight red card’; rather, a yellow card may suffice after assessing the degree of force.”
Refereeing expert Iturralde González agreed with Asubio on this point during the Carrusel Deportivo programme on Spanish radio station Cadena SER.
Experts from the Archivofar website also concurred, describing the VAR intervention as “brave and correct”, and emphasising that this challenge “does not warrant a straight red card” under current standards.
An unjustified intervention by VAR… “The sending-off was correct”!
On the other hand, veteran refereeing expert Pérez Borul, an analyst for ‘Radio Marca’, believes that the referee’s decision to send off Martín was entirely correct, and that the VAR intervention and review of the play ‘were not justified in the first place’.
Borul said, verbatim: “The decision to send off the Barcelona player (Gerard Martin) was not a mistake. In my view, the player deserved to be sent off because the contact was very strong on Almada’s ankle. VAR should not have reviewed this incident.”