RFEF President confirms Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez has pressured him over referees

RFEF President Rafael Louzan has revealed that Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez has pressured him to alter the officiating in Spanish football. Louzan, who only came to power in late 2024, has revaled that while he was still part of the hierarchy at the RFEF that the issue need to be resolved and was costing Los Blancos titles.

Speaking to El Chiringuito, Louzan explained that Perez had taken him aside to discuss the matter while they were both in Saudi Arabia to attend the Spanish Supercup last year.

“In Arabia a year ago he took me aside there: ‘Hey, you have to resolve this matter of the referees that is harming us and that we have lost many titles because of the referees.’ I believe in the work of the referees,” Relevo quote Louzan.

Despite various figures in English football declaring that the Premier League should bring in referees from abroad, Perez appears to believe they are the best.

“Florentino told me one day that he was going to bring English referees to referee. I told him, well, let’s see how we do it then.”

It is a topic that Perez has come back to on several occasions.

“My relationship with Florentino, which was prior to this, is good, what happens is that Florentino, well, of course, he clearly states that he feels harmed in terms of the refereeing. So I tell him, ‘Hey, look, let’s see.’ I just arrived, we will have to start from scratch, we will try, in some way, to get along.’ He is persevering on the subject.”

This is not entirely surprising, given the editorial line taken by Real Madrid TV, which paints every referee who gives a decision against them as a stooge for a regime against them. Equally as unsurprising is that Barcelona President Joan Laporta has voiced on several occasions that referees favour Real Madrid, recently calling their non-penalty call against Getafe ‘a disgrace’. Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has waded into officiating recently too, insinuating that officials favouring Real Madrid is a practice that has been in place for a century.