The FC Barcelona was undoubtedly a victim of one of the major controversies of the weekend and possibly of the 2024-25 season in LaLiga EA Sports at the referee level. Why? Because in the match of matchday 13 between the Blaugrana team and Real Sociedad (1-0), a legitimate goal was disallowed due to an offside position that clearly should have been legal.
This is not merely an unfounded argument as in the globally available replays, it was evident that between the two players involved in the controversial play, the Cule forward, Robert Lewandowski, and the Real Sociedad defender, Nayef Aguerd, the foot of the '21' from the Basque team was noticeably more advanced than that of the '9' from Barcelona, a detail evident to the naked eye due to the difference in the color of their boots, eliminating any doubt.
However, upon reviewing the VAR images justifying the alleged offside position of Robert Lewandowski, surprisingly, it is Lewy's boot tip that is slightly ahead, with an unexpected difference. This decision has sparked great controversy, raising questions ranging from image manipulation to a possible confusion by VAR between the Polish forward's and Aguerd's footwear, thus generating an interesting debate in various sectors of the football world.
The Technical Arbitration Committee's justification for Robert Lewandowski's controversial offside
In this situation, the Technical Arbitration Committee has sought to settle the controversy by giving its version of events and explaining why it supports this controversial decision. From the CTA, besides endorsing the play, they have stated that there was no error in interpretation and no confusion was observed between Aguerd and Lewandowski by the Semi-Automatic Offside Technology (SAOT).
To conclude their argument, it is important to highlight that ten additional cameras were used besides the audiovisual production to verify that the system worked correctly and that the applied technology allows for detecting these millimetric offside positions and tracking the boot position accurately.
How does Semi-Automatic Offside Technology (SAOT) work?
It is worth remembering that 'hawkeye,' the system used to determine semi-automatic offside, uses between 10 and 12 cameras to track the ball's movements and up to 29 data points of each player up to 50 times per second, aiming to accurately capture the player's position, including various body parts. Despite the precision that this system claims to have, the reality is that after this play, there is a bitter taste and its accuracy could be questioned, or perhaps the judgment of those applying it, isn't it so?