The Referees Comittee (CTA) have admitted that Fran Beltran’s winner over Barcelona should not have stood last week, following Girona’s 2-1 win at Montilivi. The decision sparked major controversy in Catalonia, with several stars speaking out about it, although Hansi Flick downplayed the call.
With three minutes to go in the Catalan derby, Jules Kounde went into a challenge with Claudio Echeverri, and the Manchester City loanee stepped on his foot. The French defender went down, and remained on the floor. Play continued, and Girona cut the ball back to Beltran to strike the winner, who did so just in front of Kounde, still on the ground.
🚨 This seasons Joan García has played 19 games and accumulates 79.41% of successful saves, which means he saves almost 8 out of 10 shots that are directed at his goal. [@mundodeportivo] pic.twitter.com/9U9s8nWxvY
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) February 25, 2026
After the game, Raphinha claimed that Barcelona ‘were playing under different rules‘, while Echeverri himself admitted he would have understood if it had been given.
CTA admit error on Kounde decision
Not only did the referee not give the foul on Kounde at the time, the VAR did not intervene on second look, and did not call the referee to the screen. During their weekly decisions review programme, the CTA explain that the VAR considered the decision by the referee one of interpretation, but that the correct call would have been a foul, disallowed goal and a yellow card.
📺 Tiempo de Revisión
🎬 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝟮𝟮
ℹ https://t.co/QhugkRFGsa #ArbitrajeRFEF | @CTARFEF pic.twitter.com/tbun787s8v
— RFEF (@rfef) February 24, 2026
Barcelona respond to CTA
On their official Twitter/X account, Barcelona reacted to the decision with images of the play. Imposed over the images is the phrase ‘Owning a mistake is a big step. Avoiding it is the next’.
Owning a mistake is a big step.
Avoiding it is the next. pic.twitter.com/rzPdIN5fD9— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 24, 2026
Joan Laporta less impressed
However Joan Laporta was not quite as impressed. Currently on the election campaign, Laporta responded to the CTA’s rectification, telling Sport that ‘it’s good that they recognise the error, but who is going to give us back that point?’ Following this weekened’s clashes, Barcelona returned to the top of the table by a point, with a win over Levante and a Real Madrid loss to Osasuna.
