Burgos and Almería tied without goals with both teams playing a lot: the playoffsthe locals, and the direct promotion, the visitors. The VAR warned the referee to review a possible penalty due to a handball by Bonini, but Salvador Lax, after reviewing the play, said there was nothing. And Ramis’ team has exploded in a statement:
The Burgos Football Club wishes to publicly express its deep concern and indignation at the referee’s performance in the match played today in El Plantío against UD Almería.
In the decisive part of the match, with the result still to be decided and with our team fighting for sporting objectives of the utmost importance, an action took place inside the visiting area that, in the opinion of this club, is absolutely decisive. After a corner kick, the ball clearly hit the hand of Bonini, a UD Almería defender, with his arm separated from his body and occupying an obvious space inside the area. Furthermore, behind this action there was a Burgos CF footballer ready to intervene in the play.
The action was reviewed by the VAR, who called the main referee, Salvador Lax, to go to the monitor. After several minutes of review and observing the repeated play from different angles, the referee decided to maintain his initial decision and not award a penalty.
Burgos CF respects the difficulty of refereeing and understands that error is part of football. However, what happened today cannot be assumed as a simple isolated interpretation when it occurs at a decisive moment in the season, with our team vying for the possibility of entering the playoff positions and with only three rounds remaining.
We do not ask for any favored treatment. We ask for equality. We ask for the same criteria. We ask that the decisions that determine games, seasons and dreams be made with maximum clarity, coherence and responsibility.
For all these reasons, Burgos Club de Fútbol formally requests the competent bodies to provide the complete audio of the communication between the VAR and the main referee corresponding to said action, with the aim of knowing the arguments that led to maintaining the decision not to award a penalty after the review on the monitor.
El Plantío has once again demonstrated today that it is one of the great stages of Spanish football. Our fans have pushed, believed and supported the team until the end. Precisely out of respect for all of them, from the club we consider it necessary to express our discomfort.
The Burgos Football Club requests that the competent bodies seriously reflect on what happened and on the application of the arbitration and VAR criteria in such a decisive phase of the championship. We will continue competing. We will continue believing. We will continue to defend Burgos CF with the same firmness with which our fans defend each game from the stands.