The hidden darts in the written exams evaluated by Spanish referees

SabadellReferees in the First and Second Divisions regularly take technical exams to verify their regulatory level is suitable for officiating professional football matches. During the 2024-25 season, two online tests were conducted in November and February, and the referees were left speechless when they had to answer a series of questions prepared by the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), with subtle attacks and reproaches against critics.

Among the refereeing community, there is a certainty that its president, Luis Medina Cantalejo, along with his team, pays excessive attention to the opinions of analysts, because some of them are opposed to the current refereeing structure. Among the most prominent names are the media personality Antonio Mateu Lahoz and the Catalan Xavier Estrada Fernández. The obsession has gone so far as to dedicate one of the exam questions to one of the darkest chapters of the CTA: the FurgoVAR that occupied Estrada Fernández at a match, just after having denounced the CTA.

The examinees had to answer the question: "Can matches be officiated as a VAR in a licensed van?" The correct answer, according to the examiners, is yes, but one of the incorrect options on the test reads: "No, the VAR could sue the Federation and win." ~ On the other hand, on October 20, 2023 The ARA uncovered the existence of an operating room that maintained direct contact with the VAR room. A VAR of the VAR, in other words. The CTA hasn't forgotten that chapter either, which forced the RFEF itself to present it publicly. In fact, in their most recent exam, the Spanish referees had to answer whether "the reserve VAR could make decisions," and one of the options read: "Of course, the annex room was created for that purpose."

Since the CTA management team assigned professional referees the role of also being present in the aforementioned operating room, there has been a rough ride among the group because this task is not included in their professional contract and entails a considerable increase in their work hours. The appointments of the occupants of this annex room are not official and are received via WhatsApp.

An official exam with jokes and reproaches

During the exam, the referees also encountered some questions with an unorthodox tone. One of the seemingly normal questions proposed the following situation: "The VAR reviews an attacking action prior to a penalty and, after a minute of review, finds evidence of a previous violation." The nature of the question didn't suggest anything unusual, but the possible answers left the examinees speechless. One option suggested that "after all this time, magic must prevail." Another alternative proposed: "If the square root of the sum of the VAR's years of experience and the AVAR raised to the numerical power of the on-field refereeing team's experience, minus the fourth official's years of experience, were less than 100, I would decide to uphold the decision made on the pitch."

An unusual situation framed during a technical test used by the CTA to collect some outstanding invoices.