New Head of Refereeing in Spain is announced as restructuring continues

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have announced the new head of the Referees Technical Committee (CTA), after the sacking of Luis Medina Cantalejo last week. The new man at the eye of the storm is Francisco Soto Balirac.

Soto leaves a career in the law to begin his new role as the President of the CTA, has been a delegate at the Galician Football Federation for the last decade. That has been a minor role alongside his legal career though, where he was working as a tax lawyer for the company Garrigues. He specialised in advising athletes and businesses on their tax affairs.

Career in refereeing for Soto

Soto has been involved as a referee for the last two decades though. He began as a referee in 2002, and rose to the Segunda B level over 13 years, Spain’s third tier. Soto retired in 2015 from active refereeing, and became a spokesperson for the Galician Referees Committee, and in 2015 became a delegate for the same organisation. He would then reprise the role in 2020 for the last five years.

Changes on the horizon for CTA

Shortly after the announcement, Soto announced that the restructuring of the CTA had already been planned out.

“I’m closely involved with grassroots refereeing,” Soto told Marca, before going on to detail what changes were on the way.”

“What existed, which was a board of directors, will be replaced by a functional board. Along with the president, there will be a head of institutional relations. There will be a technical director, who will be almost the cornerstone of that team. There will be a VAR manager, who will have a very significant role in the system. There will be an artificial intelligence manager, since AI is essential in every aspect of life these days.”

“Artificial intelligence is here to help, not to replace. It won’t replace people. There will be a head of women’s football; we’re going all out for women’s football. And finally, there will be a head of futsal and beach soccer. A committee will be created to unify criteria.”

Transparency and objectivity

One of the complaints about his predecessor, and the CTA in general, was that there was not enough transparency in the refereeing system. Soto promised that this was the aim, but did not give much more away.

“We’re going to act as a completely independent body. I want the referees to trust in that independence. We’re going bit by bit. The goal is transparency, and we’ll take steps bit by bit. We must put aside secrecy.”

He would go on to say that Spanish refereeing was amongst the best in the world, and would seek to make it the envy of the rest of European and global refereeing. Soto is also keen on incorporating AI in order to improve decisions.

Rafael Louzan’s move

The decision was taken by RFEF President Rafael Louzan, and could well define his tenure in charge of Spanish football. Louzan has been working with Real Madrid, and Real Betis and Sevilla as representatives of the rest of La Liga, in order to improve the current system, and the appointment of Soto is at the heart of the reform he has promised in officiating. It is not yet clear who will take over as the Head of VAR.