In a statement signed by David Medié Jiménez, José Luis González González, Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva, David Pérez Pallas, Daniel Ocón Arraiz and Víctor Areces Franco, the assistants denied that they had been dismissed after the Valencia-Real Madrid League match on the 21st, but they denounced that the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has not appointed them since then “in retaliation” for filing a conciliation ballot against the entity, after claiming certain labor rights.
The referees acknowledge that after the aforementioned match none have been designated to act as VAR, “in an unprecedented decision since the system was implemented” in Spanish football.. The assistants maintain that eliminating them “jointly and unanimously from the designations does not respond to technical errors during the season”, “nor to any type of incident that occurred in the aforementioned game.”
On May 23, and after the match in Mestalla, on matchday 35, the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) replaced Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva as VAR for the Betis-Getafe match and as assistant VAR (AVAR) for Osasuna-Athletic Club of the following day.
The RFEF reported the decision of the Technical Commission of the CTA to change the designation of the Galician after what happened in Valencia, when from the VAR only the referee, Ricardo De Burgos Bengoechea, was shown the blow from Vinicius Junior to Hugo Duro, for the one who was sent off, and not the previous grabbing of the Brazilian's neck.
The Competition Committee annulled the expulsion of the Real Madrid player, understanding that the video images distorted the presumption of veracity of the arbitration report.
In addition, Competition pointed out that “the action of the VAR referee would not be framed in a” human error “, since the image that was sent to the referee of the match to assess the action produced was totally partial, biased and determinant of the error of the referee in the assessment of what happened and, with it, the unjust expulsion of the player, turning the victim into an aggressor”.