Entanglement with the League referees: refrigerators and demotions to punish them
Only three rounds have been played and the competition has already accumulated a string of refereeing controversies.
BarcelonaOnly three matchdays have been played, and La Liga has already accumulated a string of refereeing controversies. The list is extensive: Ferran Torres' goal against Mallorca with an opponent lying on the ground, Balde's handball at the Ciudad de Valencia, the penalty on Mbappé at the Bernabéu, Arda Güler's handball, the penalty on Lamine Yamal in Vallecas, or the goal awarded to Giuliano Simeone even though the offside player was in VAR's position in 2018. This has fallen like a bombshell within the Spanish Federation, which sees how the changes implemented to the Technical Committee of Referees before the start of this season are not yielding the expected results.
The president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Fran Soto, has time to launch his project, but he knows he is under pressure. His initial plan was not to apply the famous refrigerators to punish the errors of his subordinates, but he has already changed his mind and has given carte blanche to David Fernández Borbalán, the technical director, to give rest to whomever they see fit. For example, José Luis Munuera Montero made two errors in the opening match of Mallorca vs. Barça and hasn't refereed since.
The Premier League model will be applied to VAR referees.
The English Premier League has an independent Referees Committee led by Howard Webb, the former international who officiated, among other major football events, the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands in South Africa. There is a team of professional referees who cover matches in the Premier League and the Championship, the second division. Although referees are usually designated to a specific category on a regular basis, those responsible have the power to promote those who perform best and descend for a set period of time those who make a mistake.
This year, the VAR has a specific team of 15 referees who will only act in the VOR room [video operations room], without stepping on the pitch. The new head, Eduardo Prieto Iglesias, has decided to imitate the English model and his first major decision will be to demote Pablo González Fuertes, the VARman who awarded Atlético Madrid's Giuliano Simeone an offside penalty in the 1-1 draw against Alavés on Matchday 2. The CTA already acted swiftly in response to a blunder it considers unacceptable and removed him from the Madrid-Mallorca match, where he was due to be part of the refereeing team. Now he will remain on ice for another matchday and his return will be in a Second Division match.
The Committee will resolve the controversies this week.
One of the new features this season is the creation of a commission of experts, made up of three coaches—José Ramon Sandoval, José Luis Oltra, and José Luis Sánchez Vera—and former Real Madrid and Spanish national team player Fernando Morientes. Their role is to select the most controversial moments of the weekend, for the CTA technical directors to publicly resolve.
The first five controversies to be publicly analyzed are Balde's handball in the Levante-Barça match (2-3), Atlético de Madrid's goal at Mendizorrotza (1-1), and Arda Güler's disallowed goal in the Madrid-Mallorca match (2-1), along with a play by Segona. The commissioner of the Referees Committee will publish a video on the Spanish Football Federation's social media channels to determine whether the referees acted correctly.