Six-minute VAR farce: Tech failure behind Cubarsí's disallowed goal explained
Spanish refs committee reveals why Barcelona's potential comeback goal against Atlético took an unprecedented six minutes to review in Copa del Rey semi-final
Barcelona’s Copa del Rey hopes weren’t just crushed by Atlético Madrid’s four-goal blitz – they were also victims of a technological meltdown that left players warming up during an unprecedented VAR delay.
Six minutes of madness
What should’ve been a routine offside check turned into a proper dog’s dinner at the Metropolitano. When young centre-back Pau Cubarsí thought he’d given Barça a lifeline in the 52nd minute, making it 4-1 and potentially sparking a comeback, nobody expected the subsequent VAR review to drag on for a mind-boggling six minutes.
While González Fuertes deliberated in the VAR room, the scenes on the pitch were bizarre:
- Simeone whipping up the crowd like a pantomime villain
- Hansi Flick looking absolutely gobsmacked on the touchline
- Players from both teams doing impromptu warm-up drills to stay loose
- Captains Koke and De Jong awkwardly waiting beside referee Munera
What went wrong?
The Spanish refereeing committee (CTA) has now come clean about the technical nightmare. Their semi-automatic offside technology (SAOT) had a proper mare when trying to model the players’ positions.
“During analysis, the system generated an error in player modeling through skeletons when detecting a situation with high player density,” the CTA explained in their statement.
After trying and failing to recalibrate, the VAR team had to resort to drawing manual offside lines – a throwback to the stone age of video technology. This explains why broadcasters couldn’t show the usual fancy 3D recreation of the offside.
Double standards?
The Barcelona camp will be fuming that their potential lifeline took nearly seven minutes to rule out, while Eric García’s red card for a challenge on Baena was confirmed almost instantly by the same VAR team.
The whole episode adds another layer to what was already a historic night at the Metropolitano – though not in the way Barcelona would have hoped. Atlético’s four first-half goals, Flick’s desperate pre-halftime substitutions, and now this technological breakdown will make this Copa del Rey semi-final first leg one for the history books, and not in a good way for the Catalans.