That Barça has been eliminated from the Champions League and has lost any hope in the Spanish League due to its own errors should not serve to cover up the fact that the refereeing last Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu was scandalous and inappropriate for a league in which there are so many sporting and economic interests at stake. Futbol Club Barcelona has acted well in protesting over the misuse of the VAR and threatening to go as far as the courtroom if necessary in order that - even if a hypothetical lawsuit would have little or no chance of prospering - it could confirm that the disallowed goal from Lamine Yamal was legal and the ball had completely entered the goal, as it seems. The referee César Soto Grado, from the refereeing board of La Rioja, with little experience in major encounters - he was in charge of his first Classic - and absent from the refereeing elite, was chosen for a match with the potential to determine the outcome of the League when his colleagues had more experience.
It was a mistaken decision, although not the only one. The VAR referee, José María Sánchez Martínez, did not act correctly, as can be heard in the audios of the communication among the referees made public by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The VAR official asserted that he could not validate the goal because "we have no evidence that the ball went in its entirety." At that time there were already images that refuted him and, as the hours passed, new photographs have made even clearer an error that is absolutely unacceptable with current technology. It was not the only mistake, although it was the least debatable, because the images resolve any doubts. But Soto Grado was guilty of other errors, calls that were certainly more borderline, but in which his decisions ended up always falling on the same side and always harming the same team.
Having said what we must about that specific match, we also need to take stock of the season in the month of April, and the fact of doing that is in itself bad news, since it means that the season has not been good. Barça lost the final of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia against Real Madrid in January (4-1) and were eliminated from the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, also in January, by Athletic Bilbao. Already in April, the team was knocked-out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain, after losing at the Lluís Companys stadium and having been guilty of poor management in the second leg, and was thus left out of the 2025 Club World Cup, which will have a new format with 32 clubs participating - thus Barça misses out on 50 million euros of earnings. The club's absence among the 12 European teams present is due to the fact that it has neither won the Champions League between 2021 and 2024, nor been classified among the top eight clubs due to its performance in the same continental competition in that period. The culmination of this season is the current second place in the League, 11 points behind the leader, Real Madrid, and two ahead of the third place holder, Girona.
We need to take stock of the season in the month of April, and the fact of doing that is in itself bad news, since it means that the season has not been good
That is the sporting balance of the season and should set the tone for the planning of next season and the choice of a new coach or not, a chapter that seemed closed and that now seems to have been reopened, since Xavi Hernández may be willing to reverse his announcement of last January. Xavi has in his favour the discovery of talent from the lower categories - Yamal, Cubarsí and Fermín are three examples - his indisputable love for the club in which he has been everything and his knowledge of what the organization means, the feeling of "Barça, more than a club". But he also has things against him: an impression of lacking rigor, when first he's leaving and now he's staying; also, serious doubts about his ability to get the best out of his players and lead a winning and ambitious team in all competitions. As well as his impulsive nature, which is good in the right measure, but when it gets out of control on the field of play, it ends up being a problem for the team and the players themselves.
Although it should not be in the equation, there is also another element that could help position fans as for or against: his substitute. And here, while waiting for real news, there are only rumours. And what has been heard is no more reassuring than giving the Terrassa coach another opportunity.