28 years ago, the VAR would give that League to Real Madrid

It was on a day like today. June 7, 1992. A radiant and island sun accompanied the start of a Tenerife-Real Madrid in which a League would be decided that ended up in the hands of Barça after a strange encounter plagued by bizarre and quite debatable situations. Many of you know development by heart. Beenhakker's Madrid (who had replaced Antic five months earlier despite the team leading the way, came up in a bad hour to Ramón Mendoza) depended on himself to sing the league league. Assuming that Barça was going to beat Athletic at the Camp Nou, Madrid had to win as it was. And title to the bag. And with that mentality it started. Fernando Hierro made it 0-1 with a great chopped header to the center of Hagi, and the Romanian genius himself placed the 0-2 at half an hour with a masterful free kick. Everything seemed done and more before a Tenerife without sporting demands and that only the cousin was playing who was allegedly promised by someone from Barcelona …

The problems started with a good goal that Quique Estebaranz scored before the break. After the break, the party went crazy. And also the arbitration lucidity of the trio that gave Madrid nothing. Rather the complete opposite. Just like Barcelona remembered yesterday the 50 years of Guruceta's famous penalty in favor of Madrid at the Camp Nou (committed against Velázquez, who was outside the area), Madridistas like to remember today the clamorous double mistake of Raúl García de Loza, who prevented that League from traveling to Madrid from the beautiful Canary Island. With half an hour to go, Butragueño put in a magnificent pass between the lines that enabled Luis Milla, who adequately marked the 1-3 that sentenced the championship. Incredibly, the lineman, Puentes Leira, raised the flag like lightning. An offside that only he could see. The repetition showed that Milla was almost a meter in a legal position. García de Loza listened to the lineman, thus committing the most important mistake of his refereeing career.

García de Loza himself publicly acknowledged his ruling months ago, which honors him: “If the VAR had existed, Madrid would now have one more League.” In other words, he would have 34 titles in his gigantic Trophy Room and Barça 25. Nine difference and not seven as it exists now. What is reprehensible is that Puentes Leira ended up being a member of the arbitration appointment committee. There was no penalty for his enormous error of assessment. Things like that were sowing the seed of the famous Villarato. And I do not forget that still with 1-2, García de Loza expelled Villarroya very rigorously, leaving Madrid with only ten men and 17 minutes ahead. And then came what they already know: Rocha's own goal, Sanchis and Buyo's blunder, Pier's 3-2 … But none of that would have been worth if Milla's goal had gone up to the scoreboard. I wish the VAR could get into the time machine, go back 28 years and do justice. One less League in the Canary Islands …