Real Madrid-Almería (3-2) on Sunday, matchday 21 of the League, will go down in history due to the refereeing scandal involving the VAR. The re-arbitration of three actions, at the request of referee Hernández Hernández from the VOR room in Las Rozas, seriously damaged Almería (which won 0-2), facilitated Madrid’s comeback and left a long shadow of doubt about the referee’s benevolence towards the Madrid, the adulteration of the competition and the power of the white club in high places.
The perfect storm to perpetrate manipulation: on the field, a new referee, Francisco José Hernández Maeso (35), from Extremadura born in Brussels, who makes his debut this year in First Division and whistled for the first time at the Bernabéu and Madrid. And in the VAR room, Alejandro José Hernández Hernández (41), from the Canary Islands, eight seasons in the First Division, an outlaw named by the white club for the defeat in Mallorca in the previous League (1-0, February 2023). Real Madrid TV was cruel to the referee, accusing him of “permissive attitude” and collusion with the alleged aggressiveness of the Balearic team – to whom he had pointed out 29 fouls. Since then he has not refereed Madrid. “It eventually comes to you. I’ve been refereeing for 30 years and it doesn’t affect us. They have said atrocious things to me [on Real Madrid TV] and it always slips me away,” the Canary Islander defended himself at Cope on November 23, “after nine months of silence.” Through the earpiece he spoke clearly in Hernández Maeso’s ear: he urged him to change his decisions three times.
In First Division, the referee appointments are made by Luis Medina Cantalejo, Arturo Daudén Ibáñez and Evaristo Puentes Leira.
The VAR, video assistant referee, was introduced in the main European leagues and the Champions League in the 2018-19 season, as an instrument to help the referee. According to FIFA protocol, the VAR “can assist the referee only in the event of a clear, obvious and manifest error” or “a serious inadvertent incident” in four cases: goal or not, penalty or not, red card direct and identity confusion.
To further delimit the intervention of the VAR, the Technical Committee of Referees of the Spanish Federation expressly recommended in its circular number 3 of August 2023 that “the VAR intervention line must be elevated”, so that “in case of doubt ” [of the person responsible for the VAR] to intervene by recommending a review to the referee, “the decision is not to do so.” Ergo, Hernández Hernández had no doubt in the three controversial actions in which he recommended Hernández Maeso review the play. Thus, the Canarian referee responsible for the VAR intervened, taking advantage of the criteria of the Circular when he states that “if the VAR finds evidence of an error made by the referee team [on the field], the Video Assistant referee must recommend the review.” Hernández Hernández’s instructions – recorded in the audios – were explicit, requiring the on-field referee to review: “Fran [Francisco José Hernández Maeso], come see her. I recommend a field review so that you can assess a possible penalty due to a handball by the Almería defender,” he tells him in the 1-2 action.
Minute 56 with 0-2 on the scoreboard. The VAR referee warns the field player of a handball from Kaiky in his area (penalty), although the Almería defender was previously off balance by Joselu when finishing; a defense that Hernández Hernández ignored. Thus, a goal kick (due to a white shot) became a penalty and the score was 1-2. According to the opinion of Mateu Lahoz in Movistar Plus, “the hand came for something, because of contact by Joselu on Kayku’s back; Therefore, it is not a penalty.”
Minute 61. The opposite case: the 1-3 that Arribas scored was annulled at the request of the VAR referee due to a previous foul by Lopy on Bellingham at the beginning of the play, in the center of the field, right in front of Hernández Maeso, who did not warned no violation. Hernández Hernández made him rectify. The field referee agreed to the “recommendation” of review and annulled the 1-3 score he had awarded. He changed a goal for a foul.
Minute 67. The play that has gone viral: the goal with Vinícius’s arm, which made it 2-2, and the manipulation from the VOR room. The field referee annulled it due to the Brazilian’s handball when he actually finished with his right forearm (in addition to committing a foul on the defender by getting away from him). But Hernández Hernández conditioned his partner, urging him to “look at Vinícius’ non-hand.” To aggravate the confusion, he sent him only two shots (of the 28 available) of the action, precisely the least clear, from behind, and none of the front cameras (from the back of the goal) in which the infraction was clearly seen. . Even Mateu Lahoz admitted that “the VAR should not have come in”, since the referee had no doubt about Vinícius’ foul.