Spanish FA accuse VAR providers of manipulation in Athletic-Valencia clash LaLiga Cheryshev goal given after review

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have released a strong statement concerning the involvement of VAR during Valencia's 1-0 win over Athletic Club on Saturday.

The controversy surrounds Denis Cheryshev's winning goal, where VAR ruled that Maxi Gomez was not offside when receiving a pass from Rodrigo Moreno in the build-up.

However, the RFEF have questioned whether the decision to award the goal was correct and they've targeted VAR providers Mediapro in a statement.

"Against the most elementary rules of the ethical sporting code and the rules of national and international competition, the producer of the match has put up images of a hypothetical offside line that doesn't correspond to the [line] of VAR," the statement reads.

"These images [are] without any sort of technical rigour and offer a distorted view of the play. [It's a] manoeuvre which creates a social alarm like a loss in confidence in the current VAR provider and in the skill of the Spanish referees."

The statement goes on to say that these images would have manipulated the decision of the on-field referee and that severe punishments could be handed out due to the damaging reputation that this incident gives Spanish football.

According to various sources, LaLiga believe that the official offside line drawn up by VAR didn't arrive at the mobile unit until the 54th minute of the match. The incident in question happened in the 29th minute of the match and the official VAR line wasn't shown on TV until the 54th minute.