Sergio Ramos' elbow: Evidence and embarrassment

  /  autty

While Spanish football was divided in two, with Florentino Perez joining former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu in calling for a European Super League while LaLiga chief Javier Tebas defended the league's interests, a can of worms was opened on Sunday night after Yoshinori Muto's header hit Sergio Ramos' elbow in Real Madrid's area against Eibar.

It didn't take watching the replay to know what had happened. In real time we already knew that it should have been a penalty, and not because the Real Madrid captain made a gesture of having tried to get out of the way. When a similar thing happened to Nacho Fernandez against Alaves, a penalty was awarded.

But neither Jose Luis Munuera Montero, who minutes earlier had decided not to send off Anaitz Arbilla for a second yellow card, nor Guillermo Cuadra Fernandez, who had seen an offside in a sublime Karim Benzema goal because of a frame where the Frenchman was half a boot ahead of the play, understood that this was worthy of a penalty.

If the situation on the pitch was already grotesque, someone at Las Rozas surely had to provide explanations on Monday morning. Zinedine Zidane, Jose Luis Mendilibar, Dani Carvajal and Kike Garcia all confirmed what seemed to be evidence and embarrassment: that not even those involved in football know when a handball is a penalty and when it is not.

Carlos Velasco Carballo, who was a discreet referee but now heads the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF)'s Technical Committee of Referees, was striving a few days ago for a 98 percent success rate for decisions in which VAR had intervened. It would be the last straw if perfection were not to be found in this televised football in which we see even the bogeys eaten on the bench by Joachim Low.

The remaining two percent is like that fractious dentist who doesn't recommend fluoride toothpaste because a recommendation of ten out of ten cannot be credible. Marketing stuff.

And that's where we are. With an unfilled cavity, with defenders on the verge of arm amputation and with some members of the profession reciting The Song of my Cid, which I no longer know if it's right or left:

"What a good vassal I would be if I had a good lord!"

Related: Real Madrid Ramos Zidane
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