Rafael Louzán: “Florentino told me: ‘The referees are hurting us'”

In a recent interview with Josep Pedrerol on ‘El Cafelito’, Rafael Louzán, the new president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), shared some surprising revelations about his conversations with Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez.

Louzán recounted Pérez’s strong concerns about refereeing in Spanish football: “Florentino emphatically states that he feels disadvantaged in the area of refereeing.” The RFEF president attempted to take a conciliatory approach, telling Pérez, “I’ve just arrived. Let’s start with a clean slate.” However, Louzán noted that “Florentino is persistent on this issue.”

One of the main topics Pérez emphasized was the ‘Negreira Case’. Louzán shared, “He reminds me of it. He says, ‘Resolve the Negreira case,’ but what can I do?” According to Louzán, Pérez believes that referee decisions and the Negreira case have cost Real Madrid several titles: “He’s very insistent, and it’s not just now. A year ago in Arabia, he told me, ‘You need to resolve this issue with the referees who are harming us, and we’ve lost many titles because of the referees.'”

Pérez even suggested a potential solution to the refereeing issue: “One day he told me he was going to bring English referees to officiate,” Louzán revealed.

When asked about the possibility of mediating between Pérez and La Liga president Javier Tebas, Louzán expressed skepticism: “Why not, but I see it being very complicated,” he said about the possibility of getting both to sit down at the same table to talk.

The full interview with Rafael Louzán is set to air on Thursday, January 30th, promising more insights into the current state of Spanish football administration.