New figures highlight how VAR affected Barcelona and Real Madrid | OneFootball

The Video Assistant Referee has been one of the most revolutionary innovations in top-level football in recent years, and the impacts of this technology are still being felt, even in the most sophisticated and advanced football competitions, like La Liga, where some of the biggest clubs in the world, like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, compete.

Owing to their large and geographically spread-out fanbase, VAR incidents involving the Blaugrana club usually make headlines around the world. Both the club’s fans and critics keep a close eye on how the new technology treats the Catalan team.

Some idea of how VAR affected the Blaugrana team during the last season can be obtained from a report from Diario AS, which has compared how its usage affected two of the biggest teams in Spain, and the main contenders for the La Liga title, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The report notes that both the teams had 11 total VAR interventions go against them during the last season. However, from these eleven reviews, the Blaugranes lost only one point, while the Merengues lost a total of five points.

The one Barcelona game in which a VAR decision affected the change in its outcome was the game against Real Sociedad at the Anoeta. During that match, sa goal from Fermin Lopez was ruled out for a foul by Dani Olmo on Takefusa Kubo during the build-up, and if this decision had not been taken, the match would have ended in a draw.

This difference is smaller than the one these two teams had during the previous season, during which the team led by Carlo Ancelotti would have gained seven more points and Flick’s team would have gained five less points if VAR was not in operation. It would also have made Real Madrid the champions instead of Barcelona. But even without VAR, the Blaugranes would have won La Liga in the last season.

On the other end of the spectrum, Barcelona are the team with the second-most VAR calls in their favor (11), behind only Athletic Club (12).