The failure of the VAR system in the Rayo Vallecano- FC Barcelona match for 40 minutes brought Spanish football back to the days when the referee's decision was final. Those 40 minutes were enough to ignite controversy after a penalty was whistled on Lamin Yamal, with La Liga and Mediapro passing the blame for the breakdown.

An emergency return to the past

It's been a week since the 1:1 draw between Rayo Vallecano and FC Barcelona at Estadio de Vallecas, but the controversy has not stopped. Fifteen minutes before the first whistle, the referee was informed of a failure of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system and, in accordance with the rules, after informing both coaches of the situation, he decided to start the match, which he officiated as he had done until the 2017/18 season - without the support of a referee sitting behind a monitor.

According to COPE, the technicians restored the operation of the VAR around the 40th minute of the match, which is when Lamine Yamal was celebrating the conversion of a controversial penalty into a goal. By the end of the match, the system was operating normally, but that did not save the Blaugrana from accusations of 'theft' and La Liga from being compromised.

Tweet Rafa Rocha https://x.com/rafarochar11/status/1962256585582845953

— Rafa Rocha (@rafarochar11) May 20, 2025

On Thursday, after investigating the matter and exhaustive analysis, Mediapro - the provider of the VAR service - issued a statement declaring that the failure was due to a malfunctioning electrical system in the stadium. According to the company, it could not withstand the power consumption of the VAR screen, and it was only by connecting it to an emergency power supply that the connection to the VAR room was restored.

But the announcement did not end the matter. A few hours after Mediapro, La Liga issued its own statement announcing that the whole incident was caused by an internal malfunction in Mediapro's mobile equipment whose voltage fluctuations led to the failure of the electrical system in the stadium. La Liga stressed that the rest of the systems at the Estadio de Vallecas worked perfectly.