Real Madrid to attend referee reform meeting as major shift is discussed

Real Madrid have confirmed to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) that they will be in attendance at the committee meeting to discuss reforms to the refereeing system in Spanish football. Los Blancos received an invite after discussions between RFEF President Rafael Louzan and La Liga President Javier Tebas.

While Sevilla, Real Betis, Fuenlabrada, Antequera, CA Tenerife, Albacete and Granada were elected by the other clubs in their respective divisions to represent the clubs, Louzan and Tebas decided to extend a special invite to Racing Santander and Real Madrid. That invite is a result of Louzan’s intention to mend bridges with Los Blancos, after the latter have led a smear campaign against officials.

It means that Real Madrid, and more specifically General Manager Jose Angel Sanchez, will have a seat at the table when reforms to the refereeing system are discussed. As per Diario AS, the RFEF are considering following in the footsteps of the Premier League and the Bundesliga, creating an independent body for the referees. It would be a move to the system currently in place in the Premier League and the Bundesliga.

Currently, the Referees Committee (CTA) have their offices at the RFEF headquarters, they report directly to Louzan, and he is in charge of naming the head of the CTA. In practice, it is the CTA that assesses the referees’ performances, and elects to promote and award games to, and the new system being considered would involve a head referee carrying out those assessments, logging mistakes and correct decisions into a computer system in order to come up with an evaluation across the season. That scoring system would then determine which referees are promoted and relegated between divisions too.

Los Blancos will only support a new system if it involves the shift to an independent refereeing body. Their goal is for the new system to have independence from La Liga and the RFEF, both in terms of organisation and financing.

While most if not all of the clubs in La Liga this season have complained about officiating, Real Madrid are the only ones that have declared that the refereeing body is corrupt and deliberately taking decisions to harm them. It appears they will have more of a say in the reforms as a result.