n Mexico, Chivas, one of the big teams in the league, requested the VAR audios from the Referees' Committee accusing them of manipulation. Sound familiar? In Italy, Milan, like Real Madrid, has sent a letter to the Committee complaining about the refereeing. "This is how football becomes chaos," said Gasperini, Atalanta's coach, about the VAR. "Enough already," demanded Cesc Fábregas, Como's coach. In Turkey, Galatasaray's opponent left the field after conceding a penalty goal. In England, Nottingham Forest accused the referee in their match against Luton of being a fan of the opposing team. In Portugal, there was a major uproar over the referee's performance during the Benfica-Barça match. In Switzerland, Sion reported the VAR to the TAS for not being used during the Cup semifinals. In Belgium, the Anderlecht-Genk match had to be replayed due to a VAR error, which "applied rules incorrectly." The list goes on.
This "chaos," as Gasperini summarizes it, has led the Referees' Committees of the five major European leagues to schedule a meeting of presidents next month in Budapest, as confirmed by this newspaper. "There is bad blood and tension in all countries," admit sources close to the referees. They have two fronts: on one hand, the constant criticism from clubs and how to deal with it. On the other hand, the issues with the VAR, its use, and governance. This last point is under discussion in each league, regardless of the format, with the same conclusion: it's not working well.
A reflection that was also present in the sixties when clubs chose their three favorite referees to officiate their matches throughout the season. But of course, there were some, like Rigo, who had work every week. In the eighties, it was left in the hands of the Committee president, but that unilateral decision didn't last long. Surprise, no one was happy with it. Now we have a commission with a representative from the RFEF, another from LaLiga, and another for "consensus." And as you know, the result is controversy.
The refereeing system in Europe
In England and Germany, the Referees' Committee is an autonomous entity, each in its own way, a different case from Italy, Spain, and France, where it depends on the national Federations. Is one better than the other? Does a certain mechanism work better? Judging by the wars and complaints in each competition, it seems not. Javier Tebas, LaLiga's president, prefers the English model, in line with, curiously, Real Madrid, which insists on providing transparency to the refereeing body. Louzán, who has the power to choose the Committee president, prefers not to change the system but to replace the head of the referees, with Medina Cantalejo in the firing line towards the end of the season.
"Transparency" is the magic word in all of this. The first word that comes up in every country when discussing referees. But what would it entail? In Spain, where referees have been in training while the Federation was closing the investigation into Munuera Montero's companies, resolved yesterday with the referee's exoneration, everyone is calling for transparency.
Clubs and referees themselves want reports and criteria for promotions and relegations to be made public, the golden goose in our football. A spot among the 20 LaLiga referees grants a salary of over 300,000 euros per year, a lottery ticket that lands in the pockets of a few each season and, according to sources within the collective that EL MUNDO has approached, creates, in their own words, "distrust."
Negreira was the key figure in promotions and relegations in his time, and the requirements, reports, and reasons for current decisions remain unclear. Referees, in private, are asking for everything to be made public and for decisions to be more statistical than personal. And clubs voice their complaints as they please. Real Madrid has intensified its criticism since the Negreira Case and publicly explodes after every mistake against them. The rest, one day they align with LaLiga, in that eternal war between Tebas and Florentino, imposing a sanction on Madrid for criticizing referees, and the next they issue a statement complaining. Meanwhile, a 'Commission for the reform of the refereeing system' has been created, with Sevilla, Betis (both ahead of Rayo and Madrid in votes), Granada, and Albacete chosen as club representatives.
And then we have the VAR, the common thread of criticisms, a tool that was supposed to fix everything, to only act on clear errors, and has ended up transforming refereeing. The field referee no longer makes decisions; instead, they have a sword hanging over their head constantly analyzing their potential mistakes. Publicly, referees express gratitude for the "help," but privately, without naming names because no one wants to expose themselves, there is a "fear of making mistakes" on the field and sometimes an "overly interventionist" attitude from the VAR room.