CTA admits Gerard Martín should have been sent off in Atlético v Barcelona | OneFootball

Spain's referees' committee acknowledged VAR should not have downgraded Gerard Martín's red in Atlético v Barcelona, and that Busquets Ferrer should have kept his original decision.

According to AS, the CTA set out its view on Tuesday on its Tiempo de Revisión programme, calling it the main controversy of matchday 30 at the Metropolitano.

Early in the second half, Martín and Almada challenged for a loose ball. The Barcelona player touched it, then trod on his opponent's ankle. Busquets Ferrer showed red, but VAR reduced it to yellow.

The committee deemed it serious foul play regardless of who played the ball first, so the correct sanction was red. It compared it to Betis v Rayo and said VAR should not have prompted a review.

On Unai Núñez's stamp on Hugo Álvarez, it said a Valencia player was in clear possession and passed, then the Celta man put a leg in and the contact came from a natural motion. It concluded there should be no sanction, and the foul should not have been given.

It upheld Nianzou's 37th-minute red for denying an obvious goal-scoring chance against Fede Viñas, calling the Sevilla player's dismissal correct.

On Bigas's second yellow, the CTA said the action sat between recklessness and serious foul play and was entirely interpretable. The referee's view stands, it classed it as reckless with yellow and said VAR was right not to intervene.

Source: AS