Tomas Guasch claims VAR officials are ‘Real Madrid’s biggest enemies’

Spanish journalist Tomas Guasch has launched a fierce criticism of refereeing in La Liga after Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat by Real Betis, accusing VAR officials of searching for reasons to disallow the club’s goals.

Guasch made the comments during a YouTube interview with content creator Ricardo Ramos Niera. His remarks were published by Spanish outlet Defensa Central.

“Whenever Real Madrid score a goal that does not come from a 40-metre shot, they replay it on VAR and look for an excuse to disallow it,” Guasch said. “There must be someone whose only job is to monitor Real Madrid’s goals.”

The journalist claimed officials repeatedly review incidents until they find an offside position or another reason to overturn a decision.

“They replay the footage… they show two or three replays until they find that a player was offside,” he added. “I’m telling you, they would not disallow that goal if it belonged to another team. It continues like that, one replay after another, until eventually they find a pass where the player is ahead.”

Guasch is among the small number of journalists who continue to criticise the Negreira case. He also referred to a controversial incident involving Carlos Espi during Real Madrid’s match against Real Betis.

Espi appeared to score in the 87th minute with an outstanding volley after receiving a pass from Vinicius on the right. The goal was initially allowed by referee Hernandez Hernandez, while Iglesias Villanueva was in charge of the video assistant referee system. VAR intervened several minutes later, however, and the goal was ruled out for offside.

Guasch questioned how such a decision could be considered a matter of interpretation when the officials have access to several camera angles.

“You now have someone up there, and I don’t know how many assistants beside him, with three or four screens in front of him,” he said. “There cannot be a mistake. No, they say, ‘He interpreted it’. Stop interpreting, stop twisting the language in this way and talking about grey areas, the intensity of the challenge, excessive force… all of that is a distortion of reality.”

The journalist, who works with radio station Cadena COPE and writes a column for El Debate, went further by alleging that the decisions were made in bad faith.

“They are acting in bad faith, and I am absolutely certain of that,” said Guasch.

“Your sporting rival is in front of you, and then you have the biggest enemies, and those are these people, especially the VAR officials, aren’t they? When I say I am a VAR commando, that is the reality.”

Guasch also criticised the decision not to retake a penalty missed by Kylian Mbappe. Marc Bartra had entered the penalty area before the France striker took the spot-kick, but the kick was not ordered to be retaken.

“They do not retake the penalty because they do not want to,” Guasch said.

He argued that the official operating VAR had already decided what action to take and had relied on a rule he described as inconsistent with international regulations and common sense.

“Bartra… does he affect the play? Yes, because he is the player who arrives to prevent or obstruct Mbappe’s shot, so… listen to me carefully… you said a month ago that this was a penalty and that it had to be retaken, so why are you intervening in this situation?”

Guasch concluded by arguing that VAR, rather than the on-field referee, now holds the decisive authority in La Liga matches.

“Who has the decision in refereeing, then? The person in VAR, and that is the end of it. Nothing more than that.”

Guasch previously served as deputy editor of AS and also worked as a columnist for Marca.