Barcelona fans left outraged over 'edited' footage as controversial VAR audio emerges after Real Madrid win

Barcelona fans were left outraged with match officials on Sunday despite their 4-3 win against Real Madrid, which saw them go seven points clear at the top of La Liga.

Real Madrid took a two-goal lead inside 14 minutes thanks to a Kylian Mbappe brace, which stunned Barcelona fans inside the Estadi de Montjuïc.

However, Hansi Flick’s side are not one to give up, and pulled a goal back through Eric Garcia on 19 minutes before Lamine Yamal levelled the scores with a stunning curled strike on 32 minutes.

And just two minutes later, the home side were ahead via Raphinha before the Brazilian put Barca two goals clear with his second of the match on 45 minutes.

Mbappe tried to encourage a Madrid comeback with a strike on 70 minutes, which saw him come away with a hat-trick, but Barca stood firm and thought they had a fifth goal through Fermin Lopez, before the strike was ruled out for handball.

Referee Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez was encouraged to look at the pitch-side monitor by Juan Martínez Munuera in the VOR (Video Operations Room) as reported by Mundo Deportivo.

And issues have stemmed surrounding a comment made during the audio.

In the audio released by RFEF, Martínez Munuera said: “Listen to me, Alex, we’ve just detected a handball, okay? Please come take a look.”

Then an ‘unknown voice’ added: “Given the height—thank goodness. Yes, yes, totally.”

🗣️ AUDIO REVISIÓN VAR

🗓️ Jornada 35 | Primera División

⚽️ @FCBarcelona_es 🆚 @realmadrid | 96'#ArbitrajeRFEF | @CTARFEF pic.twitter.com/5SQztI5Apn

— RFEF (@rfef) May 11, 2025

To which Hernández Hernández replied: “Okay, perfect. Let’s continue. It hits his hand, yes. The ball’s going out. Now give me a wide angle so I can see the entire action and how it ends. Okay, perfect. The hand is clearly raised. I’m going to disallow the goal.”

However, MD reports that the “thank goodness” part was seemingly edited out of the video posted by the RFEF on social media.

Fans were quick to have their say on social media.

One said: "I'm beginning to lose trust in the VAR system in Spain. What a disgrace… how can you not accept a penalty, then disallow a goal with the same incident?"

Another added: "You have to explain to me how a goal can be disallowed for a handball prior to Valverde's control, which Gavi later recovered and then scored. If instead of one play and one possession, it had been five, would it also be disallowed because it was a handball a while ago?"

While a third explained: " 'Thank goodness' a disgrace."