Barcelona president Joan Laporta says he may demand a replay of the Clasico because of Lamine Yamal’s ‘phantom’ goal.

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Barcelona president Joan Laporta says he may demand a replay of the Clasico because of Lamine Yamal’s ‘phantom’ goal.


Barcelona president Joan Laporta has called on the Spanish football federation (RFEF) to take drastic action after the Clasico controversy.

Real Madrid won 3-2 against Barcelona at the Bernabeu on Sunday with Jude Bellingham scoring a late goal to put Los Blancos 11 points ahead of their rivals with just six league matches remaining.

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Bellingham scored the winner in a thrilling El Clasico clash on Sunday nightCredit: Getty

But there was a controversial moment in the 28th minute when Lamine Yamal struck from a corner with the ball appearing to cross the line.

Real goalkeeper Andrey Lunin rushed to clear the field, hitting the post before the ball trickled out of bounds.

After a lengthy VAR check, the goal was not awarded as La Liga does not have goal-line technology. A corner was awarded to Barcelona instead.

Barca chief Laporta remained furious and said in a statement on Monday: “We understand the difficulties faced by officials, but that is why such tools exist (like VAR) which should help the competition to be fairer and not the other way around.

“Yesterday there were several questionable incidents, but among all there is one that is crucial and can change the outcome of the match.

“I am referring to Lamine’s ‘ghost goal’. As a club we want to be sure of what happened, and for this reason from FCB we will make an immediate request to the Technical Commission for Refereeing from the Spanish Football Federation for a complete collection of images and audio of the incident.

“If, once this documentation has been analyzed, the club understands that an error was made in reviewing the incident, we will take all available measures to reverse the situation, without ruling out, of course, any necessary legal action.

“If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, we will move forward and we will not rule out requesting that the match be replayed, as happened in another match in Europe due to a VAR error.

Yamal thought he had passed the ball over the line from a corner

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Yamal thought he had passed the ball over the line from a cornerCredit: X/@harryfcb21
Barcelona then lost 3-2 and all but ended the title battle

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Barcelona then lost 3-2 and all but ended the title battleCredit: Getty

“Finally, I would like to point out that despite our focus on this incident, we also disagree with various other incidents that occurred during the match which could have been investigated using VAR.”

Laporta was referring to a Belgian Pro League match between Anderlecht and Genk when it was announced that the match would be replayed due to a VAR error.

A disciplinary board for Belgian professional football ruled that Genk had been treated unfairly and ruled in favor of a replay on the grounds of poor application of the laws of the game.

It is the first of its kind to occur in Europe and Laporta hopes the same rules will apply to his team, although the two nations have different laws on association football.

LaLiga is the only “top five” league in Europe that does not use goal-line technology and the league has faced heavy criticism for its lack of technology.

Barca boss Xavi was equally critical of the referees on Sunday, saying: “My feeling today is one of maximum injustice. Needless to say, everyone saw it. My feeling is that today’s match was not fair.”

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