Once again, LaLiga’s refusal to invest in goalline technology has brought scrutiny to the league and Javier Tebas, president of the league has come out in defence of this position.
Some years back, Tebas, who is now in his fourth term as LaLiga president until 2027 after running in the last elections unopposed, claimed that the technology was “too expensive” to invest in.
The price of the goalline technology, Hawk Eye, is said to be around €4 million.
Many discussions and arguments have been had since Tebas refused in 2017 to invest in this technology for the betterment of LaLiga. Many ghost goals have also been disputed in that time.
Barcelona have been a victim of the absence of this technology once before in a title race, and now, in the 2023/24 season.
The Catalan club went in the April 2024 El Clasico with the hopes of closing down the gap to Real Madrid. Instead, they left the Santiago Bernabeu with a 3 – 2 loss and an even wider gap (11 points). More importantly, they left the grounds with the feeling that they should have been awarded a goal after a flick from Lamine Yamal following a corner kick in the first half was scooped out of the goal by Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.
The referee and the VAR officials determined that there was no goal but with poor camera angles to study from, goalline technology was the only way that they could have been sure.
Fans and journalists immediately took to social media to call out the league’s management headed by Tebas for not investing in one of the most important technologies in modern football. The 61-year-old immediately jumped to defend his decision with posts on social media.
He posted a series of screenshots from various articles that highlighted the failures of the technology and captioned it, “No comments”. He was hounded by many Barcelona fans and even neutral journalists, who accused the well-known Real Madrid fan of bias while pointing out the many failures of VAR technology, which the league employs.
It is unclear if Barcelona captain and goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen saw his social media post but the German shot-stopper had this to say about the lack of goalline technology in LaLiga after the game: “It’s a shame that they don’t find an angle to check the goal… I don’t have words to describe it. They have a lot of money, but not for the most important things.”
