Real Sociedad issues scathing statement against referees

Real Sociedad issued a scathing statement over a controversial penalty decision in the Basque derby, alleging systemic failures in VAR review and ball-tracking technology.

Real Sociedad has escalated its complaint over a controversial penalty awarded to Athletic Club in the Basque derby, rejecting the Referees' Technical Committee's partial acknowledgment of error.

The club issued an official statement detailing three consecutive failures: the VAR room failed to identify that Jon Mikel Aramburu had touched the ball before contact with the Athletic attacker; the Connected Ball chip showed a synchronization error of one to two frames (20-40 milliseconds); and these compounded to produce an irreversible injustice.

Real Sociedad demanded immediate answers from the refereeing authorities on three points: the exact verification protocol used in the VAR room, who is responsible for calibrating the ball-tracking chip, and what supervisory filters exist to detect such discrepancies before a penalty is awarded. The club concluded that an apology for a millisecond error is insufficient and called for an immediate overhaul of the technological protocols now under scrutiny.