‘Florentino Pérez Wants English Referees In La Liga’

Spanish football federation [RFEF] president Rafael Louzán has claimed Florentino Pérez told him he’d like to bring English referees to Spain, to improve the quality of LaLiga’s refereeing.

Real Madrid president Pérez has frequently criticised the quality of Spanish officials, saying in 2023 that “urgent” reforms were necessary, while the club’s TV channel, Real Madrid TV, has regularly highlighted refereeing errors before and after games.

In an interview for the podcast ‘El Cafelito’ with journalist Josep Pedrerol, Louzán — who was elected as RFEF president last month for a four-year term — said Pérez had repeatedly raised the subject in conversations with him.

“My relationship [with Florentino] is good,” Louzán said. “But what happens with Florentino is that he says, in strong terms, that he feels aggrieved by referees.

“I said to him, ‘I’ve just arrived. Let’s try to get along.’ But he’s persistent on the subject. He reminds me from time to time, he says, ‘sort out the Negreira case.’ And I say, it’s before the courts.”

Responsibility for refereeing in Spain lies with the Technical Committee of Referees, which is regulated by the RFEF, while a designating committee — which includes both RFEF and LaLiga representation — assigns officials for specific matches.

“Florentino said to me once that he would bring English referees to referee,” Louzán said.

“And I said, ‘let’s see how we do that!’ … It’s not just now, he’s said to me various times. In Saudi Arabia a year ago [at the Spanish Supercopa], he said to me, ‘you have to sort out the referees issue, because they’re damaging us, and we’ve lost a lot of trophies because of referees.’ But I [Louzán] believe in the work of referees.”