Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, has revealed that artificial intelligence will be introduced into Spanish football from next season to assist with the evaluation and appointment of referees, İdman.Biz reports.
Speaking to Marca, Tebas explained that the new system is designed to make the assessment process more objective and data-driven.
“We are going to implement artificial intelligence in refereeing,” Tebas said. “There will be two main areas. The first is the evaluation of referees’ performances.”
According to the La Liga president, the current system relies on observers from Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), who analyse around 30 different criteria after every match. Tebas noted that this process is still carried out manually by officials and evaluators.
“With artificial intelligence, we are creating a tool so that at least 40 per cent of the decisions can be made objectively with the help of AI,” he explained. “The system and algorithms are formed using all matches. Artificial intelligence will analyse everything and show in which moments the referee made the correct decision. We are making the process more objective.”
Tebas also confirmed that the technology will play a role in referee appointments. AI will reportedly generate a shortlist of three candidates for each fixture, with the final decision remaining in human hands.
“I believe in human intelligence,” he added. “But there are moments where artificial intelligence should help.”
The move comes amid increasing debate around refereeing standards and the use of technology in European football, particularly following continued scrutiny of VAR decisions across major leagues.
