“We are happy”. It is the summary of the analysis of the first third of the season by the president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Luis Medina Cantalejo, of the work of the referees. In the opinion of the president: “Last year we had a season that was not good. I maintain that in these days the level has been very good, I am not going to reconsider,” he responded angrily to a journalist who asked him if he thought he had been sufficiently critical of the performance of his work.

In the 70 minutes that Medina Cantalejo's appearance lasted along with Carlos Clos Gómez and Alberto Undiano Mallenco, the president of the CTA admitted that “there have been failures”, but that “they were happy with their work and the level of success” .

Medina Cantalejo has addressed the controversies surrounding refereeing such as 'penalties', handballs and red cards and has been supported by data to justify the improvement in the interpretation of these actions. “The criterion that no penalties are awarded has been strictly respected,” he said about the reduction in two penalties compared to last season, 46 compared to 44.

In reference to the hands, one more has been called than the previous year (13 in 2022/23 compared to 14 in 23/24), but Medina Cantalejo has admitted that there have been “two hands wrongly called and we have done so know”. Red cards have been reduced by 38%, from 21 to 13, and the president of the CTA attributed this to the reduction in the level of player entries.

The VAR has been, like almost every appearance, one of the most commented topics. Video refereeing has also reduced its interventions from 69 last season to 52 and Medina has congratulated the referees for having resorted less to the intervention of the VAR in decision-making as well as reiterated that the supposed 'scereta room' of the VAR in the Rozas is nothing more than a Backup in case a VAR referee “is unwell.”

Controversies

After an initial intervention by the president that lasted around 20 minutes, he moved on to questions from journalists regarding the controversies affecting the CTA.. Real Madrid and its videos prior to its matches about errors by the assigned referee has been the first topic that the president has discussed and he has admitted that “they do not like it nor do they think it is correct”. Nor has he shared the statements of the white president, Florentino Pérez, about changes in the arbitration structure and has responded that it is not “positive.”

He has also had to face, of course, the Negreira case, the one in which FCBarcelona admitted that it had made payments for 17 years to the vice president of the CTA. The current president has responded that “since the case came out the surprise was tremendous”. “What we want is for this to be resolved as soon as possible and whoever did it to pay. Whoever it is,” Cantalejo pointed out and asked the judge that “it was a bit risky” to collect suspicions without evidence.

Finally, he had to face a question about his applause for Rubiales in that assembly in which the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation decided not to resign. Without apologizing, he admitted that it was “a complicated moment” and that what he had to talk about with Rubiales, he did. He also revealed that as soon as the change of president in the RFEF was announced, he called him within five minutes and put his position at his disposal.