the Negreira case and the controversies take their toll

2023-08-03 16:12:56

“It hasn’t been a good season.” Luis Medina Cantalejopresident of the Technical Committee of Referees, did not mince words in the balance of last season and in the purposes of the next. He did so at the annual meeting with the media that took place in Oviedo, where the collective held its previous preparation for the course that starts on August 12.

“It has been an atypical season. We have been involved in controversies and very mediatic issues that are in the hands of Justice,” admitted the ‘head’ of the referees without expressly citing the Negreira case, that investigates the payments of Barça to the one who was former vice president of the CTA between 1993 and 2018.

Particularly, Medina Cantalejo wanted to give explanations about the leaked audios during a meeting of the referees. In them, the president of the committee referred to a person as “the dishonor of Spanish arbitration”, using terms such as “rat” or “traitor”. Although at first it was speculated that he was addressing Estrada Fernández, who sued Negreira and his son, the comments were addressed to an unidentified official who leaked the link to the meeting to a journalist.

“From a personal point of view, when a person represents an institution like ours, they have to know how to keep control and know that they are representing a lot of people. This season there have been moments of great pressure and lack of respect, as well as of lies about the collective. I was the first who did not like the audio. I apologize for words that I should not have used, “Medina Cantalejo apologized.

With whom he did not want to apologize is with the member of the collective who sent the ‘link’ of the private meeting. “It seemed to me a tremendous lack of dignity. That’s why I want to make my position clear in this aspect”, he settled, to later analyze in terms of the game what was last season. For the CTA, it was not positive either, “because when the VAR intervention increases it is because something does not add up” The revised shares went from 143 to 179 last season.

The section in which the most increased video arbitration was in red cards: from 14 to 38 reassessments. “We are very clear that we are going to defend the footballers and whenever we see this type of play we will act”, defended Clos Gómez. On the increase in these sanctions, which put LaLiga at the head of them, Medina Cantalejo wanted to clarify: “They are circumstances of this season, we don’t think our players will be violent”.

In the other sections analysed, the differences have not been as substantial: from 63 to 66 goals, from 64 to 69 penalties and from one to four repeated penalties. “The field referees are the ones who have the upper hand. Raising the level of intervention is not good, even if justice is done,” insisted Medina Cantalejo.

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One of the problems that, in the opinion of the CTA, has been amended is that of what is known as ‘penalties’. The number of incidents with little physical contact has dropped by 21% to 71 (compared to those of the previous season). Arriving at this section, Medina Cantalejo asked the teams to request meetings and ask for all the pertinent clarifications.

As for the changes that are planned for the next season, there are two main ones. The first one eliminates the punishment when a penalty is called or foul on the edge of the area for a handball or punishable action. “It’s not going to show yellow for everything. Until now, it happened that sometimes plays were called when there were more defenders behind the ball”, explained Undiano Mallenco, from the arbitration team.