Barcelona not ruling out legal action over Lamine Yamal 'ghost' goal. GETTY IMAGES

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has said he won't rule out legal action over Lamine Yamal's controversial 'ghost' goal against Real Madrid.

The 16-year-old thought Lamine Yamal he had given Barcelona a 2-3 lead in the 28th minute at the Santiago Bernabeu, but Los Blancos goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, who was positioned behind the goal line, managed to claw the ball away. Barca insisted that the ball had crossed the line after a lengthy VAR check, but the referee deemed otherwise.

Due to the lack of goal-line technology in La Liga, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was unable to provide conclusive evidence. Barcelona eventually lost the game 3-2 when Jude Bellingham scored the decisive goal in the first minute of injury time.

Laporta said the club would ask the Spanish FA's Technical Refereeing Committee for the audio and video recordings, which have since been made public, to assess whether the goal should have been allowed. He went on to say that if their analysis shows that the goal was valid, the club "do not rule out the possibility of requesting a replay, as happened in another European game due to a VAR error".

Barcelona president Joan Laporta (R) together with and Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez. GETTY IMAGES
Barcelona president Joan Laporta (R) together with and Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez. GETTY IMAGES

If, after analysing the evidence, we believe that there was an error in the assessment of the situation," Laporta continued, "which is what we believe happened, we will take all the appropriate measures to rectify the matter, not excluding any legal action that may be necessary. If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, we will go further and ask for the match to be replayed, as happened in a European match due to a mistake by the VAR."

Laporta's criticism extends beyond this particular incident. He highlighted other occasions in El Clasico where he felt the VAR should have played a role, suggesting a systemic problem with the application of video assistance. This, he argued, affects the fairness and integrity of the competition.

"This is not a gratuitous or advantageous situation, but one that we need to carry out because of our helpless situation and because we have experienced bad decisions that have directly harmed us and others that have benefited our opponents. When you add it all up, you get the gap in points that exists at the top of the table," Laporta continued.


"I want to express not only the dissatisfaction of the Barcelona supporters with yesterday's mismanagement of the VAR, but also the fact that it continues to cause confusion and contradictory judgements depending on the matches and teams.

"As president of Barcelona, I would like to stress the power of our competition, which is followed by millions of fans, and we cannot stand by and watch the use of VAR undermine the competition. VAR should help to make the competition fairer and not the other way around."


Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández expressed his frustration after the match, saying is a "disgrace" that goal-line technology was used in other countries, such as England's Premier League, but is not available in La Liga." Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen echoed these sentiments, describing the lack of goal-line technology as "a disgrace for football".

Andres Christensen opened the scoring for Barcelona, but a Vinicius Jr penalty levelled the scores before half-time. Fermin Lopez restored Barcelona's lead at 2-1 before Lucas Vázquez equalised. Real Madrid currently lead La Liga by 11 points from second-placed Barcelona.