Tomás Guasch Critiques La Liga Refereeing and VAR Decisions
Tomás Guasch has gone on the offensive against La Liga refereeing, using Real Madrid’s defeat to Real Betis as the latest exhibit in what he sees as a warped system run from the VAR booth.
Speaking on YouTube with content creator Ricardo Ramos Nera, and quoted by Defensa Central, the veteran Spanish journalist tore into the way Real Madrid goals are reviewed this season.
“With every Real goal that doesn't come from a shot from 40 metres, they replay the footage on VAR and look for an excuse to disallow it. There must be someone whose only job is to follow the Madrid goals,” he said.
He painted a picture of obsessive forensic checking.
“They replay the footage. They rewind two or three times until they find that the player was in an offside position,” he continued. “I'm telling you they wouldn't disallow this goal if it were for another team. It goes on like that, replay after replay, until they finally find a pass in which the player was ahead.”
Fury over Espí’s disallowed header
The trigger for Guasch’s latest outburst was the offside decision that ruled out Carlos Espí’s late equaliser against Betis.
In the 87th minute, Espí met a cross with a superb header, after receiving a pass from Vinícius on the right. On the pitch, referee Hernández Hernández awarded the goal. Up in the booth, Iglesias Villanueva had other ideas. After a long check, VAR intervened and the goal was chalked off.
For Guasch, that sequence summed up everything that is wrong with the current system.
“Now you have someone up there, and I don't know how many assistants are alongside him, and three or four screens in front of him. There can be no mistake. No, they say ‘he interpreted it’... Stop interpreting, and stop twisting the language in this way, and talking about grey areas, the intensity of the challenge, and excessive force... all of this is a distortion of reality,” he argued.
Guasch, who works with Cadena COPE and writes for El Debate, did not soften his verdict.
“They act in bad faith, and I am absolutely certain of that,” he stated.
He went further, describing referees and VAR officials as a rival in their own right for teams on the pitch.
“In front of you, you have your sporting opponent, then you have the biggest enemies, and those are these people, especially the VAR men, isn't that right? When I say VAR commandos, that's the truth.”
Mbappé penalty adds fuel to the fire
The controversy did not end with Espí’s disallowed goal. Guasch also highlighted Kylian Mbappé’s missed penalty, focusing on Marc Bartra’s encroachment into the area before the French forward struck the ball.
From his point of view, the decision not to order a retake exposed a clear double standard.
“They don't retake the penalty because they don't want to,” he said, accusing officials of bending the rules.
“The person up there already knows what he has to do, and they have invented a rule... They have violated the international rule, and on top of that it goes against common sense,” he added.
Guasch then broke down the incident with Bartra.
“Bartra... does he affect the play? Yes, because he's the player who arrives to prevent or obstruct Mbappé's shot, and therefore... listen to me carefully... you said a month ago that this is a penalty and it must be retaken, so why do you interfere in this case?”
For him, the inconsistency is not accidental. It is the system.
“Who really decides?”
Guasch has long been one of the few journalists still openly criticising the Negreira case and its impact on Spanish refereeing. His distrust of the current framework has only hardened.
“So who holds the decision in refereeing? The person on the video technology, and that's it. Nothing more than that,” he concluded.
From deputy editor-in-chief at AS to columnist at Marca, Guasch has watched La Liga’s evolution from close range for decades. Now, in his eyes, the league’s biggest battles are no longer only between players and coaches on the pitch, but in the shadows of the VAR room where, he insists, the real power lies.
