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Real Racing Club de Santander v Real Madrid - LaLiga EA Sports 2026/27Getty Images Sport
Mohamed Mansi
Translated by

Refereeing expert exposes VAR's "double standards" after Real Madrid penalty

Racing Santander vs Real Madrid
Racing Santander
Real Madrid
LaLiga
Spain
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Real Madrid won a tenth-minute penalty against Racing on Sunday evening in the 11th round of La Liga.

According to AS, Kylian Mbappe burst into the box and made slight contact with Brati's arm at chest-muscle level before tumbling to the ground.

Referee Munera Montero pointed to the spot, to the astonishment of Racing Santander's fans. The contact was real, but minimal, and nowhere near enough to warrant a foul.

Iturralde Gonzalez, the former referee and refereeing analyst for AS and Cadena SER radio, was blunt: "It is not a penalty."

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Why the controversy? VAR refused to intervene, given that there had been contact between the players. That flatly contradicts what happened in the Getafe match just an hour earlier, when the technology did step in on a similar incident, even though the contact was so slight that near enough everyone agreed it was not enough to warrant a foul, despite it having occurred.

Iturralde said: "If VAR intervened for the Getafe foul, then it should intervene here too. In terms of the consistency of refereeing decisions, if there was intervention in that case because of a hand placed on a player's face, then there must be intervention in this case as well."

He went on: "If there was intervention in a case where there was contact and its force was assessed, then why is there no intervention to assess the force of this contact? People no longer understand how the VAR technology works."

Minutes earlier, Diomande had a possible penalty shout of his own after Mantilla stepped on the front of the Ivorian's foot. Munera Montero waved play on.

On that one, Iturralde reckons the referee got it right: "It is an incidental play, nothing, it is not a penalty."

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