Real Madrid lead a striking La Liga statistic that places them well ahead of Barcelona when it comes to goals disallowed following VAR reviews.
As such, Jose Mourinho’s team has seen as many as 42 goals ruled out by video assistant referees since the technology was introduced in Spain’s top flight in the 2018-19 season.
Barcelona, by comparison, have had 19 goals disallowed over the same period.
The 23-goal difference puts Real Madrid comfortably ahead of every other club in the ranking as VAR enters its ninth season in La Liga.
The figures cover the period from 2018 to 2026 and count goals initially awarded on the pitch before being overturned after video review.
VAR-disallowed goals reveal a 23-goal gap
Crucially, Real Madrid’s total of 42 is more than double Barcelona’s 19.
On that note, Celta Vigo, Real Sociedad and Sevilla are next in the ranking, with 20 disallowed goals apiece, while Barça sit seventh in the table.
Across the eight completed seasons and the beginning of the ninth, that amounts to an average of approximately 4.6 disallowed goals per season for Madrid, compared with around 2.1 for Barcelona.
Understandably so, these numbers, in any way, do not establish that one club has been treated more favourably by referees.
Rather, they show how often goals scored by each team have been overturned under VAR, rather than measuring penalties, red cards, missed incidents or other decisions.
The recent Vinicius incident
The latest example came during Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory over Villarreal.
Barcelona have seen 19 goals overturned by VAR decisions. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
Vinicius Jr. appeared to score a second goal, but the strike was disallowed after VAR identified a hair-pull on Nathan Saliba earlier in the attacking move.
Referee Isidro Diaz de Mera initially awarded the goal before VAR official Alejandro Muniz alerted him to review the incident.
After checking the footage, the referee overturned his original decision and showed the Real Madrid forward a straight red card, which was quite fitting for his actions.
Indeed, judging by the first look at the stats, one might wonder if Real Madrid have been affected by the referee decisions, something that they claim after every La Liga clash.
However, these statistics rather help us explain something crucial; if it were not for VAR, La Liga tables might have looked different each season.