Salvadoran referee Iván Barton faced sharp criticism after officiating the France vs. Spain match in the 2026 World Cup semifinal, receiving a low rating from the Spanish network "Archivo VAR", specialized in analyzing refereeing situations.

The Spanish national team qualified for the 2026 World Cup final after a deserved 2-0 victory over the French team in the semifinal. "La Roja" imposed its control over the match, securing the final ticket thanks to goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro, and will face the winner of the Argentina vs. England match for the world title.

The network gave Barton only 3.5 out of 10 on its official website, considering that he failed to live up to the level of such a big match, thus receiving a "failing grade" for his performance.

The network said that the referee's performance was not surprising, given the poor levels he showed throughout the tournament, stressing that the real surprise was FIFA's decision to assign him to officiate a World Cup semifinal match.

It pointed out that Barton had a "very weak" first half, explaining that the only correct decision he made during that period was awarding the clear penalty committed by Lucas Digne against Lamine Yamal.

It added that the referee then made several judgment errors, noting that his assistant had to correct one of his decisions during the match, which reflected, in its description, his lack of consistency in managing the game.

"Archivo VAR" concluded its assessment by affirming that "FIFA's experiment did not succeed," considering that assigning such a big match to Barton was not a wise decision, making the Salvadoran referee one of the most criticized referees of the tournament after the semifinal round.

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