Iturralde González's reaction to the disallowed goal by Arda Güler against Mallorca

Video refereeing was one of the main players in the match between Real Madrid and Real Mallorca. This match held at Santiago Bernabéu offered several aspects for analysis for Xabi Alonso's coaching staff, but not only the Merengue coaches have many debates ahead.

Commentators and pundits from almost all media outlets rushed to make their opinion clear after the decisions made by Sánchez Martínez on the three disallowed goals. Aside from the disallowed goals for Kylian Mbappé, both for offside, the point of discussion is the one scored by Arda Güler.

So much so that one of the most surprising verdicts has come from Iturralde González. This former referee, now a commentator and refereeing analyst at Cadena SER, reviewed the play following rule number 12 from the list of rules used by Spanish referees. That rule states that the goal will be disallowed if the handball occurs "immediately after".

"Even if accidental," the rule states, the goal should be disallowed for handball. For Iturralde González, the play "is not a holding, it's not a trip that we can interpret. Here we're talking about all handballs in attack that end in a goal and are immediate, they must be disallowed".

Everything in order

Faced with the insistence of his colleagues regarding the possible interpretation of immediacy, the former Spanish referee insists that there can be no such discussion: "Did it hit his hand?" The answer to that question is yes, so Iturralde González has no doubts in stating that the play was correctly refereed by Sánchez Martínez.

According to the refereeing expert from Cadena SER, both the main referee and the VAR referee followed the protocol at all times and applied rule 12 as it should be done. That's why Arda Güler's goal, the same explanations that the Turkish '15' heard on the field from the main referee, did not go up on the scoreboard.

The debate continues over the immediacy of Arda Güler's handball in relation to his shot on goal. For Iturralde González, following the criteria of the referees in Real Madrid-Real Mallorca and what is established in the refereeing rule, the play was correctly managed: the goal should not have been valid. The handball by the Altindag midfielder will give people much to talk about in the coming days.

The refereeing controversy remains a constant in LaLiga despite the change at the top of the CTA. The decisions made by Spanish referees have drawn attention, not only because of what happened at Santiago Bernabéu. The incident in Deportivo Alavés-Atlético de Madrid, with a goal clearly offside, has ended with González Fuertes being sidelined.