La Liga have called an extraordinary board meeting in order to discuss a number of issues, with the meetin scheduled for the 19th of April. It is the second such meeting of the season, after the first was celebrated in Dubai in November, where several rules regarding the La Liga salary limits were changed.
This second meeting will have two main themes. The clubs want to hear Barcelona President Joan Laporta’s explanations on El Caso Negreira. The will once again express their indignation should their questions not be met with satisfactory answers. After Real Madrid joined the legal case against Barcelona, they are hoping for more solidarity from Real Madrid too.
Secondly they want to discusss the current state of refereeing, as per Relevo. A referee in England is paid €159k for 20 Premier League matches, while in Spain, that money is €264k. There are also three categories of seniority in England, with just one in Spain.
More pertinent is the fact that VAR interventions are 34%, and 54% of VAR interventions are in order to check potential penalties, despite the RFEF saying they would no longer give soft penalties in the summer. Straight red cards in La Liga are also close to crossing the 100-mark too, with the current total at 99 in 262 games. Comparatively, the Premier League is on 22, Serie A on 40 and the Bundesliga on 33.
The inconsistencies and generally interventionist approach of refereeing in Spain may well be the greatest threat to the spectacle in La Liga. The stop-start impact this has on games makes fans turn off, and means the ball is in play for less of the game.
