Ass reported that the Spanish referee community ushered in a new era. Francisco Soto Balilaq, the representative of the Galician Commission and a partner of the law firm Galicígues, was appointed as the chairman of the new Technical Judgment Committee (CTA) by Raphael Luzan on Wednesday to replace the dismissed Luis Medina Cantalejo and his team.
He will lead the reform of the Spanish referee community, and in the upcoming new season, this area will face a series of changes: including structural restructuring, the way in which referees are evaluated and assigned.
Balilak: "I want to thank the administrators who left the committee for their great contributions. I gave up my high position in my career and being a member of the law firm of Gariguez was the biggest challenge. As a passionate fan of football and referees, I accepted this project without hesitation." The road to the new CTA is full of challenges, which is a new atmosphere in the referee community, but it is also accompanied by huge expectations and problems that need to be solved. First, we need to calm down some clubs that are very hostile to the referees, especially Real Madrid, which strongly demands that Medina Cantalejo step down and releases videos against the referees every week. This behavior is under investigation by the Sports Administrative Tribunal (TAD) and may be subject to penalties. In addition, they need to promote the referee system to become more transparent and independent. First, with the help of artificial intelligence, it is planned to redisclose the ratings of referees for each season. In addition, the referee's assignment will also be recommended by AI to recommend the three most suitable candidates for each game, and the relevant software still needs to be further improved.
The new referee senior management must also meet another major need: unify the penalty standards through VAR. All handballs and penalty kicks should be punished in the same way. Considering the complexity of the gray area, the phenomenon of similar situations but different punishments is a major conflict point between the club and the referee. In addition, the new CTA chairman also needs to pay attention to the feelings of the referee team. The referees are undergoing major changes in the industry and are extremely dissatisfied with the offensive attitudes of some clubs, which prompted them to set up their own unions to protect themselves.