Referee kills VAR: phantom penalty given despite six minute VAR review

VAR was brought into football to make it fairer, but the officiating in Spain in recent days has been nothing short of scandalous and disgraceful despite the use of the technology. If giving Getafe a penalty on Monday despite the Getafe man stepping on the defender's foot was not bad enough, things got even worse at the Visit Mallorca Estadi. 

After seven minutes, Dani Rodriguez went down in the box and De Burgos Bengoextea gave a spot kick. Replays showed that the Mallorca was not even touched by Santi Mina and the Celta man just brushed him at the very most. 

The Basque official got information from the VAR, Jose Luis Gonzalez Gonzalez, who astonishingly took five minutes before calling the referee over to the monitor. 

What should have been a five second review saw the referee being given questionable angles and he took two minutes looking at the monitor before sticking with his on field call of a penalty. Celta were rightly furious and it sums up a terrible few days for the Spanish officials.

On 'Radio Marca', ex-referee Andujar Oliver was absolutely perplexed by the decision. "I feel hurt as a referee. The VAR is an absolute joke. How can you give a penalty when the Mallorca man so obviously dives to try and deceive the official?" he asked.

In the Atletico-Alaves match last Saturday, both teams were awarded a penalty despite neither being one. The award of the Atletico Madrid penalty was so wrong that even Atletico fans could not believe the call.