Great controversies that favored Barracas Central in recent years

Barracas Central and Independiente competed for the leadership of Zone A of the Professional League Cup of Argentine soccer and tied 2-2 at the Tomás Adolfo Ducó stadium, in Huracán, in a hot match, with controversies and dubious plays in which The referee Pablo Dóvalo did not resort to the VAR nor did the technology intervene in the decisive moments.

It is not the first time that this has happened, and in fact the curious thing is that both the referee Dóvalo and whoever was present in the VAR, Luis Lobo Medina, are two of the judges who are involved in the controversies and accused of favoring Barracas Central, a club of which the president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, is a fan (in fact the club's stadium has your name). Next, historical controversies in favor of this institution.

In October 2021, Barracas Central, leader of Zone B of the Primera Nacional, retained the leadership due to its 2-1 victory in Adrogué against Brown, one of the teams that was fighting to access the Reduced positions. The handsome”, whose stadium is called “Claudio Fabián Wall“ in reference to the current president of AFA, it was refereed by the always controversial Andrés Merlos, who did not sanction a very clear penalty to the team led by Pablo Vicó and which quickly became a trend due to the treachery of the maximum penalty not collected.

The particularity, furthermore, is that in the replay the screen went black just when there was clear contact that should have been sanctioned as a penalty, in the match that Barracas ended up winning 2-1 around the hour mark to retain the lead with two days remaining.

October 2021. Piletazo by Valenzuela that judge José Carreras whistled a penalty. Although Tapia, son of “Chiqui”, threw him into the clouds, Carreras also did not sanction an obvious infraction by Maximiliano Gagliardo, goalkeeper of Barracas Central, against a visiting forward that was a penalty on the hour mark.

Barracas Central beat Patronato 2-1 in July 2022, in a match that was full of controversies. The visitors had a doubtful goal disallowed in the first half due to offside and in the second half they had another disallowed, because they saw a penalty through the VAR (which also caused controversy). The refereeing was not goodthe divided ones were all for the localsand the Patronato players were filled with fury during the 90 minutes. The decisions they made caused the match to end in scandal and they fought with the police who were trying to prevent them from attacking Jorge Baliño, the referee of the match. Facundo Sava, Patron's coach at that time, was very harsh with the refereeing. ““It makes me want to cry, go home and never direct again in my life.”

In February 2023, there were very controversial moments in the second half of the match played in Junín, with a clear penalty for the locals not sanctioned and a goal disallowed for the same team due to a striking handball.

At 19 minutes into the second half, Sergio Quiroga sent a free kick center into the area that was headed away by the defense, but the ball hit the outstretched arm of Francisco Álvarez and all of Sarmiento called for a penalty. However, Dóvalo made a gesture as if the hand was casual and took the side.

Minutes later, Luciano Gondou scored the result for the locals and scored the temporary 3-4, but Dóvalo was called by the VAR and annulled it.

Barracas won 5 to 3.

The great controversy of the afternoon-night of March 5, 2024 was the play where Iván Marcone, a former Boca midfielder who plays for Carlos Tevez's “Rojo”, received a blow from rival striker Alexis Domínguez, who was only reprimanded despite the fact that he scored all the blocks in an unfortunate action. Referee Dóvalo barely admonished him but he was not even called by the VAR to review it. Who was on the VAR? Luis Lobo Medinaanother of the referees who favor Barracas Central.

The match had another controversy in which Barracas defender Carlos Arce touched a ball with his hand inside the area and the referee did not sanction a penalty, and resumed quickly so that it would not be reviewed.