The Technical Committee for Referees in Spain (CTA) have admitted that Barcelona were wrongly denied a penalty against Getafe last Sunday.
The decision came deep into stoppage time, when Ronald Araujo was brought down in the box late on by Juan Iglesias. Play continued, and after the incident it was reviewed by VAR, when referee Cesar Soto Grado was asked to review the incident.
After checking on the monitor, Soto Grado determined that Barcelona’s Gavi had handled the ball prior to the foul on Araujo, and no penalty was given.
Following the match, Barcelona Manager Xavi Hernandez told the press that the match was ‘a disgrace’, although partly referencing the wider refereeing and time-keeping, and said the handball was ‘invented’.
Opposite number Jose Bordalas said he was merely making excuses for not winning, but now Sport have carried a story from ABC, where they explain that according to the rules, the handball was not punishable, given it struck his hand from close range unintentionally, and it also deflected off his chest – thus the penalty should have been given.
Soto Grado has been dropped for this week’s round of fixtures, and will be ‘put in the fridge’ to cool off, as the Spanish idiom goes.
This will do little to ease Xavi or Barcelona’s frustration over the matter, who felt that it was clear at the time. It remains to be seen whether this will become common practice for the CTA, admitting to mistakes, or whether this is a one-off.
bit late for all of this don’t you think.
Soto Grado should be sidelined for the same amount of time as anyone else suspended for actions during the match. Not only did he fail to control the match (which led directly to the actions that resulted in the suspensions), he had a direct impact on the outcome with his blatantly incorrect ruling at the end.
One match is not enough, and he shouldn’t be allowed to officiate Getafe or Barca matches for the remainder of the season.
Interesting how this only happens when bribELona is the damaged part.
Last season Vazquez whipped in a cross which struck a defendants arm (was clear as the light of day) and noone was dropped from his position. The replays showed a clearly outstreched arm being hit by the ball. The commentator was flabbergastered by the lack of penalty called as well.
Why noone chose to drop THAT referee is a mystery to me. The doublestandards are ridiculous.
Too much catalanimaI vermin within the Spanish football federation that should clearly be removed from their positions.
Don’t know if you watched the match, but I suspect there was way more to it than just the “missed” penalty. Soto Grado also got the Lahoz treatment because he failed, from start to finish, to control the match, which led to increasingly more aggressive play by both sides, confrontations and multiple play stoppages, not to mention the suspensions that resulted from the chaos.
I don’t disagree with you that referees should be sanctioned for blatant errors, but Soto Grado’s overall performance on Sunday was a blight on La Liga and he deserves to be punished for it.
We can talk about what could and should have been done all day, agree and disagree but fact remains that VAR didnt even take a look at that non called penalty (which ended up as a point loss for us) and this guy had to be removed BECAUSE of a non call on a penalty, not anything else which falls into subjective opinion cathegory.
Its certainly seems that urgency is employed when it comes to one side and vice versa.
Yeah, I can’t stand it when they won’t even look. There’s absolutely no reason not to if it’s controversial.
Maybe managers should have the option to compel a VAR review in situations like that. Doesn’t guarantee that that referee won’t still get it wrong, but at least there’s some recourse and folks don’t feel like they’re being ignored when the situation warrants a closer look.
Well at very least there should be a challenge like in tennis or something.
There was also a horrendous refereeing decision this week in the premier league match between man utd and wolves which imo was equally as bad if not worse and that was widely ridiculed and rightly so,it’s not just spain which has terrible refereeing standards.
Yea the only i saw is that soto grado is a new referre he is afraid of officiaten you know the presure is too much for him to control perhaps he is inrelvance person he don’t need help from any body he decides to do things on his own but i sugest fifa should ban him from officiatine any barcelona fixture and any gatefe fixture plus two match ban for not listen
I am not sure why this article and all the comments are focusing on the penalty incident only – this Soto Grado should not be permitted to officiate again, and I am not saying this because his ridiculous decisions cost Barca 2 points but because this could happen to ant other club in La Liga.
Soto Gardo never had any control of the match from the first whistle to the last … Getafe should have ended the match with max 8 players on the field – the elbow off the ball in the chest of Gundogan is straight red .. at least 4 fouls off the ball against Lewa by the same player marking Lewa should have warranted 2 yellows and off the field he ends, the player who caused Rafinha send off – should have been sent off with Rafinha had the REF awarded him the yellows for fouling Rafinha off the ball.
So, this Soto Gardo is not being suspended on the back of the no penalty call alone but on his overall management of the match – as if he was PAID to target Barca for just about anything they do even for complaining about the opposite players – why Xavi received straight red and not Bordalas as well ???? in fact if you look back into the match and see Bordalas reactions to every decision of the ref – and given the ref standard – he should have been sent off long before Xavi was sent off.
Again, the match vs Cadiz, it is becoming a habit that the opposing players commit fouls off the ball and not even warned by the REFS … and how about the CLEAR yet denied penalty against Lamine Yamal which the REF did not even reviewed it on VAR.