The Spanish Referee’s Committee (CTA) has publicly acknowledged that Girona’s winning goal against Barcelona last week should not have stood, stating that a foul was committed on Barcelona defender Jules Koundé in the buildup to the decisive strike.
According to the CTA, the incident should have been identified and corrected through the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, but the foul was missed both on the field and in the review process. As a result, Girona’s goal, which ultimately decided the match, remained on the scoreboard.
In its assessment, the committee concluded that Koundé was illegally impeded in the action leading to the goal. Under the Laws of the Game, such an infringement should result in the attacking play being stopped and a free kick awarded to the defending team. The CTA clarified that the situation met the criteria for VAR intervention, since it involved a potential foul in the attacking phase directly preceding a goal.
The committee’s finding adds to the ongoing scrutiny of VAR usage and decision-making in Spanish football. VAR is intended to assist referees in four key areas: goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards, and cases of mistaken identity. In this instance, the CTA stated that the technology should have been used to overturn the on-field decision and disallow Girona’s goal.
By formally stating that the winning goal should have been disallowed, the CTA effectively recognizes a significant officiating error in a high-profile match involving Barcelona. The committee’s review process typically involves a post-match evaluation of key incidents, after which it may issue clarifications or admit mistakes when it determines that the laws of the game were not correctly applied.
While the committee’s statement does not change the result of the match, it provides an official explanation of how the refereeing team, including VAR, was judged to have erred in this specific situation involving Koundé and Girona’s decisive goal.
