A fresh refereeing storm has broken out in the Spanish league. A turbulent weekend of controversial calls has pushed the Technical Refereeing Committee into opening an urgent investigation into the penalty awarded to Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé.
Real Madrid's trip to Racing Santander at El Sardinero produced the flashpoint. Referee José Luis Munuera Montero pointed to the spot for Mbappé, and the decision immediately split opinion over whether he had got it right.
It wasn't the only one. The Basque derby threw up a near-identical moment when referee Alejandro Hernández awarded a penalty to Athletic Bilbao after a clash between Aramburu and Nico Williams.
Faced with the scale of the uproar, the Technical Committee of the Spanish Football Federation, chaired by Fran Soto, has called a decisive meeting next Monday to pick apart both incidents. Among its members sit former international referee David Fernández Borbalán, experts Fernando López and Aitor Gorostegui, and the head of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, Eduardo Prieto Iglesias.
Was there a clash?
According to "Mundo Deportivo", the committee will start with the El Sardinero incident, a moment set to divide the room sharply. Two key questions sit at the heart of it:
First, was the contact from defender Pratti enough to bring down the Real Madrid forward? And second, should VAR referee Luis Mario Milla have stepped in and sent the on-field official to the monitor? Under the current protocol, if the VAR room decides there was contact, even slight, it stays out of it unless there has been a clear and obvious error.
Kinexon technology settles the controversy
The second incident, in the Basque derby, handed Athletic Bilbao their second goal. Hernández gave it, and the VAR room, manned by Carlos del Cerro Grande, let it stand.
Hernández stood right on top of the play. The television broadcast also showed the "Kinexon" smart ball technology at work, the system that debuted in LaLiga this season, which confirmed the Real Sociedad player never touched the ball. That is why the referee was not called over for a review.
Getafe's goal in the balance
The review won't stop at those two. It will also take in Getafe's contentious goal, which followed a clash between Andrés García and Mano Bueno. Referee García Verdura first blew for the foul at his assistant's request, but the whistle came after Getafe's attack had already ended in a goal. VAR then intervened, ruled there had been no foul, and decided the goal should have counted.
All three incidents look set for the weekly "review time" sessions held every Tuesday. Whether they make the cut depends on how well they meet the criteria set by the artificial intelligence system of the Spanish league association.