CTA confirms technical failure behind Barcelona defender’s disallowed goal | OneFootball

The controversy surrounding Pau Cubarsi’s disallowed goal during Barcelona’s clash with Atletico Madrid has taken a new turn. 

The Technical Committee of Referees (CTR) has now released an official statement explaining what happened during the long VAR review that left players, staff, and fans confused.

The incident became one of the biggest talking points of the match, especially because of the unusual delay before the final decision was announced. 

Now, the refereeing body has admitted that the semi-automatic offside system failed at a crucial moment.

What did the statement say?

In its statement, the committee addressed the situation directly, explaining what went wrong during the review process. 

It confirmed that, “With regard to the play that led to FC Barcelona’s goal being disallowed,” the VAR team tried to follow the standard protocol using the “SAOT semi-automatic offside system,” but the technology struggled to cope with the situation inside the penalty area.

According to the officials, the problem appeared during the analysis of the action. They explained, 

“It was detected that the system generated an error in the modelling of players through the skeletons.” 

The issue was linked to the software’s inability to process the image properly “when detecting a situation of high player density” in the box.

There were many controversial calls from the referee. (Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)

The VAR operators reportedly attempted to fix the problem in real time. They tried to “recalibrate the system’s modelling” in order to get a clear reading. 

However, despite their efforts, the committee admitted that it was “not possible” to restore the semi-automatic system.

The manual process

With the technology no longer usable, the refereeing team had no choice but to switch to a backup method. 

Following the official protocol, the VAR officials moved to a manual process to reach a final decision.

As the statement explained, “The VAR team proceeded to draw manual offside lines in order to make the final and correct decision.” 

This emergency step is what caused the unusually long delay, with the committee acknowledging that “the process of reviewing the play took longer than normal.”

Another detail that raised questions was the absence of the usual virtual offside replay on television. The refereeing body addressed that issue as well.

The statement clarified that the replay could not be shown to viewers “as it was not possible to operate with the SAOT system,” which meant it was impossible to “launch the replay to the television production.”

With this explanation, the committee has basically closed the controversy by admitting that technology still has limitations. 

Source: SPORT