Pedro Martin, the refereeing analyst on Cope radio's "Tiempo de Juego", tore into the decision to rule out Giovani Lo Celso's goal for Real Betis against Barcelona. Penalising a handball by Cucho Hernandez some 15 seconds before the shot that produced the goal, he argued, exposes a flaw in how the laws are applied.
Controversy engulfed the clash at the Benito Villamarin after referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea chalked off Lo Celso's first-half strike. The video assistant referee summoned him to the monitor to check a possible handball by Cucho Hernandez earlier in the move, and the Andalusians were denied an equaliser at a crucial point in the game.
For Martin, the issue is the referee treating the handball as part of the same passage of play that ended in the goal, despite the gap between the two incidents. He made no attempt to hide his frustration at the way the rules are being interpreted.
"The problem is that the referee considers the handball to be deliberate, and that it happened within the same movement that ended with the goal. What is happening in handball cases has become a joke, and the other day it was Betis' turn," the refereeing analyst said.
He went further, warning that decisions like this keep coming and nobody can say they are applied consistently. "The problem in all of this is that the regulations should be abandoned, and that's it. The other day, people did not protest about the handball that was given against Porto. We cannot accept these handballs being given in this way, whether the decision is in our favour or against us, because this is not football."
Cucho Hernandez did have the ball under control, Martin accepted. What he could not stomach was the timing. "It is a handball with the ball under Cucho Hernandez's control, but you cannot give a handball 15 seconds before the goal."