A refereeing scandal in the Barcelona-Mallorca match

The first round of the Spanish League witnessed a great deal of controversy during the match between Barcelona and hosts Real Mallorca, which ended with the Catalan team winning 3-0 on Saturday evening. However, Barcelona's second goal sparked widespread discontent due to the circumstances of its scoring. The controversy erupted after Ferran Torres scored Barcelona's second goal, at a time when one of Mallorca's players, defender Railo, was lying on the ground after receiving a powerful header from a shot by Lamine Yamal. This raised questions about why the referee did not stop the game. A report by the Spanish newspaper Radio Marca described the incident as a "refereeing scandal," noting that referee Jose Luis Munuera ignored a situation that warranted an immediate stoppage of play, given the possibility of a serious head injury, which, according to the instructions of the Spanish Football Federation, requires an immediate halt to the match. For his part, Real Mallorca coach Jagoba Arrasate expressed his deep dissatisfaction with the decision, stressing that referees had informed clubs a few days earlier that any head injury requires an immediate halt to play to protect the players. "We all saw what happened, and we were told in advance that if there's a blow to the head, play is stopped. We thought the referee blew the whistle to stop the game. I don't understand how the goal was counted," Arrasate said after the match. "The referee later said that Raillo wasn't dizzy, but how could he have known that?"