The fifth duel of the season between Barça and Atlètic de Madrid was the first in European competition and, therefore, had to go through the sieve of a foreign official. The Italian Roberto Rosetti, head of UEFA's refereeing, aware of the difficulty of the match, opted for one of his best cards: István Kovács. The Romanian, 41 years old, arrived with the experience of having recently refereed a Champions League final between Inter Milan and PSG and with the intention of applying his style guide: whistle few fouls, allow the game to flow, and delay the first card until exhaustion. However, the criteria applied did not sustain control of a high-demand match.

The Canary Islands referee Juan Luis Pulido Santana has sparked a new controversy following statements made on the Rogue Cast podcast, in which he harshly criticized former Catalan referee Xavier Estrada Fernández, whom he described as "a wretch" and "a sinister character." But the issue isn't just the insult itself, but the underlying message. During the interview, Pulido explicitly introduced a particularly sensitive element: Estrada's political ideology: "Now he's playing the nationalist, a total Catalan, but he was certainly getting paid by the Spanish Football Federation," he stated. He then added a highly symbolic remark: "When he officiated the Copa del Rey final, he had to bow down to the national anthem."

The Catalan Football Federation (FCF) has decided to suspend all futsal activity in Catalonia this weekend following a serious assault on a referee during a youth match in Canet. The measure, announced Wednesday night, affects all matches scheduled for February 27th and 28th and March 1st. The incident occurred last Saturday when a fan of CFS La Unión Santa Coloma de Gramanet threw a fanny pack from the stands, which struck the referee, knocking him to the ground. The incident, which happened just minutes before the end of the match, was the final straw for referees who are denouncing a "sustained increase in verbal and physical assaults in recent weeks." Therefore, the federation wanted to take a strong response to what it considers "absolutely intolerable" events.

The disallowed goal by Lamine Yamal has reopened the debate about the reliability of the SAOT system, the semi-automatic offside technology that determines whether a player is in an illegal position. This tool has been implemented in La Liga since the 2024-25 season and represents a significant improvement over the previous system, in which referees manually drew the lines. The system is called semi-automatic because it requires human intervention to resolve the play. The role of the VAR official is to determine the exact moment when the striker's teammate last touches the ball. From there, the program calculates whether the position is legal. In certain situations, the referee can choose between one or two options. framesSince slow-motion images make it difficult to establish with absolute precision when the ball last touches the player's foot, referees never know in advance how the play will unfold. To expedite the process and increase reliability, the ball would need to incorporate an official chip that would allow the exact moment of the last touch to be determined. However, La Liga rejected this option for economic reasons, as well as the implementation of a clock that alerts the referee when the ball has completely crossed the goal line in cases of phantom goals. A headache for the CTA (Technical Committee of Referees).

Hawk-Eye, the company responsible for the semi-automatic offside system, provides the broadcast team with a graphic representation to justify the VAR decision. The problem is that the shortcomings of this simulation raise more questions than answers: the mannequins are all the same height, wear the same shoes, and lack features like hair, which detracts from the image's realism. One of the most surreal representations occurred during last season's Real Sociedad-Barcelona match, when Robert Lewandowski's disproportionately large foot was shown to justify an offside call. This Sunday, also at Anoeta, an image was circulated showing Lamine Yamal perfectly aligned with the defender, but a second test had to be sent out, revealing that part of his heel was slightly forward.

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The Madrid derby from a few days ago has gone down in history as the first match in which a referee from the same city as the teams involved was appointed. The VOR room was led by Carlos del Cerro Grande, born in Madrid, who shared the role with Valentín Pizarro, also a resident of the capital. A situation hitherto unprecedented but one that will become increasingly common.

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The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Professional Football League (LFP) have tasked the newly appointed president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Fran Soto Balirac, with leading a major refereeing revolution and overhauling the system from top to bottom. One of the Galician leader's main goals revolves around the humanization of the group, and along these lines, he has sought to reformulate the nomenclature of referees, mentioning first names and eliminating second surnames.

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La Liga announced that referee appointments will be published one day before the match. This measure was agreed upon with the Spanish Football Federation (FA) with the aim of reducing the pressure on referees from clubs, especially Real Madrid. The referees had expressed their rejection of the club's videos and, in line with this, have created their own association to prosecute any entity that attacks their honor. This new approach has been welcomed by the group after a few weeks in which they have been stupefied by the avalanche of developments surrounding the Referees Committee.

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Low-cost VAR has arrived in Spanish football. The RFEF has announced that the Spanish First Federation will have this new video refereeing system this season after a flood of complaints from teams in the division. Thus, Club Nàstic de Tarragona, CE Sabadell, and CE Europa will debut this technology when the competition begins.

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A 45-year-old lawyer based in Vigo will be responsible for football referees after the Spanish Football Federation Rafael Louzán dismissed the refereeing leadership headed by Luis Medina Cantalejo and Carlos Cloz Gómez a few days ago. Fran Soto Balirac, who has never refereed in Spanish professional football, will be the new president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), a group that is at the center of attention whenever the football ball rolls and which Florentino Pérez has fought to turn in his interests for years.

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Luis Medina Cantalejo and his senior management are no longer part of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). Although it was a public secret, it was this Thursday when Rafael Louzán, president of the Spanish Football Federation, dismissed the biggest names in the refereeing establishment with the aim of rekindling the spirit and starting a new era. Other dismissals include Carlos Clos Gómez (head of VAR), Antonio Rubinos Pérez (deputy president), Bernardino González Vázquez, Vicente Lizondo Cortés, and José Luis Lesma López (vice presidents).

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The spectacular Liga derby It was full of controversial plays that influenced, and influenced, the outcome of the match. VAR, led by Valencian Martínez Munuera, became Alejandro Hernández Hernández's worst enemy.

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The spectacular Liga derby was full of controversial plays that influenced, and in what way, the result of the match. VAR, led by Valencian Martínez Munuera, emerged as Alejandro Hernández Hernández's worst enemy. Szymon Marciniak in Milan managed to protect the spectacle by applying strict disciplinary criteria. However, the avalanche of controversy discredited his performance. The ball was in an offside position, but the refereeing team interpreted Cubarsí's rejection as intentional and, therefore, validated the action. Minutes later, Madrid scored the 0-2. It should have been detected from the VAR room. VARman He also failed to see Frenkie de Jong's handball at the start of the Barça attack that ended in a 2-2 draw. Once again, the Canary Islander lacked the help of his teammate to disallow the goal.

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The appointment of Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea as referee for the Copa del Rey final has raised a lot of controversy among the refereeing community and has increased the indignation of the referees themselves towards their president, Luis Medina Cantalejo. The Seville-based leader of the Technical Refereeing Committee (CTA) has decided to leave César Soto Grado with a bitter taste in his mouth, who has been left without the his Final. Behind this choice lies a story of betrayal, political interests, and revenge that has been brewing for the past few days.

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Referees 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.

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Atlético de Madrid manager Diego Pablo Simeone burst into the press conference by questioning the journalists: "Raise your hand if you've seen Julián touch the ball twice." The Argentine wanted to put the goal disallowed to his team during the penalty shootout at the center of the controversy. Champions League round of 16 second leg against Real Madrid (0-1, 3-4) and bitterly criticized the referee's decision.

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There is a key moment in the historic and shameful two-on-one between Trump and Vance and Zelensky, when the Ukrainian president warns them that they do not feel the danger from Russia now because the United States is separated from the war by an ocean, but that he will know how to tell them in the future. That is when Trump raises his finger and looks at her to answer: "You don't know that, don't tell us what we will hear." Zelensky is warning them of the danger of playing Putin's game, and Trump does not tolerate anyone who dares to correct him in public, and even less so if it is to stir up trouble by pointing out the weakest and most incredible point of his plan: a president of the United States humiliating the president of a country invaded by Russia. That is why Trump then drops the bomb of World War III.

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