If ever you want a good example of how a referee can ruin a game of football, then ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Señor Munuera Montero and his performance in the game Real Mallorca v Barcelona last night.

Now, you might say this is sour grapes coming from a Mallorca fan who has just seen his team lose 0–3 at home. But I haven’t spoken to a single person yet—whether they are a Mallorca fan, a Barcelona fan, or even someone with no skin in the game—who thought the referee’s performance was acceptable. It was awful.

I’m not looking at this through Mallorca-tinted glasses; it’s purely about the entertainment factor for the 23,318 fans who paid good money to watch, and the millions watching at home. This game was undoubtedly spoiled not only by Señor Montero, but by VAR too.

Let’s remember, Mallorca were already 0–2 down before the controversial decisions began. That was always going to be a mountain to climb, even with 11 players, but it would have been interesting to see what Mallorca could have done before our friend from Jaén in mainland Spain got involved.

The first controversy came when a shot from Lamine Yamal—who was excellent, by the way—left Mallorca captain Antonio Raíllo flat out after it struck him on the head. Head injury protocol should have been immediately applied, and if you watch the highlights you’ll see the referee has his whistle in his mouth, but for some reason he doesn’t blow. Former Manchester City player Ferran Torres picks up the rebound and smashes it into the top corner, with all the other players assuming play had stopped. Pandemonium in the stadium followed, as everyone could see something wasn’t right. The Mallorca players were understandably aghast when the referee decided to award the goal. Torres celebrated almost apologetically, while Manuel Morlanes was booked for protesting.

Just nine minutes later, Yamal went on a mazy run and was brought down rather innocuously by Morlanes. The referee couldn’t wait to get his red card out, and Morlanes was off. Now, I look at football as both a sport and a form of entertainment, and for me it should be within the referee’s remit to try to keep 11 players on the pitch whenever possible. All he had to do in that situation was say to Morlanes: you’re on a yellow, this is your last warning. Then it’s up to the player to curb his enthusiasm—or the coach to substitute him.

Mallorca’s task became even more difficult, and almost impossible just six minutes later. Muriqi ran onto a through ball from Darder and, in trying to win it ahead of the goalkeeper, his foot collided with the side of the keeper’s head. The keeper made a meal of it, and the referee deemed it a yellow card. Probably fair in the circumstances—and no Barcelona player even protested.

Now, here’s my other problem with the modern game. VAR was brought in to stop clear and obvious errors, not to re-referee matches. All decisions are subjective: what one person sees, another may interpret differently. Yet they sent the referee to the screen because they thought it was dangerous play. They reran it so many times it was obvious they weren’t sure, but the referee didn’t have the cojones to say: no, I’m sticking with my original decision. Some might say that’s because it was Barcelona.

Any team is going to struggle to beat Barcelona with 11 players, but with nine? Forget it. And so the game as a spectacle ended after just 39 minutes.

In added time at the end of the first half, Barcelona’s Raphinha was booked for an awful tackle on Morey. The referee gave a yellow, but considering his earlier decisions it could easily have been a red. And why didn’t VAR intervene on that one, like they did with Muriqi?

Barcelona ran out 0–3 winners in the end, but the game will be remembered for all the wrong reasons—especially by Mallorca fans. And if you say, “Well, it doesn’t really matter,” take a look at the picture headlining this report—it tells you all you need to know.

Real Mallorca play their next home game next Saturday versus Celta, kick-off at 17:00. For tickets, please send us an email, call, or send a message to +34 670 704 311.

‍