With Girona being run down by the referee and the VAR through the clearly unfair expulsion of their star Cristhian Stuani early in the second half, and thus, reduced to ten players with many minutes ahead, losing the option to be promoted to the first division, Catalan football will now experience a situation that has not occurred since the 1989-90 season: there will be just one Catalan team in the first division of the Spanish football league. Far from the four teams that Andalusia will have - Sevilla, Betis, Granada and Cádiz; the four from the Basque Country - Real Sociedad, Athletic, Eibar and Alavés; the four from the Valencian Country - Villarreal, València, Levante and Elche; and the three from the community of Madrid: Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Getafe.
It is impossible not to think of sinister forces being involved when a close look is taken at the highway robbery at Girona's Montilivi stadium perpetrated by the VAR after the on-field referee had issued only a yellow card. The same goes for Girona's misfortune in several play-offs at home with situation that this year have had to do with the referee and the VAR. The application of the video-assisted referree in the Spanish league has already led to several scandals this season and far from becoming an indisputable weapon, objective and balanced, as in other European leagues, here it has become arbitrary, controversial and unbalanced. In many games, far from helping to solve problems, which is why its presence has been promoted, it has ended up creating them and blatantly distorting the situation.
But the situation that occurred on Sunday with Girona should not make us lose sight of the fact that the Catalan team had failed to ensure direct promotion to the first division which it would have achieved through finishing in one of the top two positions. Meanwhile, Espanyol have been relegated to the second division after a terrible season and, as a result, only Barça will be in the top flight. It is necessary to look back many decades to find a similar situation as in addition to Espanyol - which lost the category for the previous time in 1994 - Lleida went up for one season and Nàstic de Tarragona for another.
A very poor balance, therefore, that of Catalan football in a business that generates more and more income and moves more passions. If, on top of all this, we add in the disastrous Barça season, there is not a single reason to be cheerful about the shambolic footballing scene before us.