The referees, like the players, are elite athletes and have to take care of their physical condition in detail during this quarantine. To do this they have to follow a series of guidelines set by the Referees Committee, but they also have to pass a series of tests on the Laws of the Game. Some tests that Antonio Rubinos, attached to the presidency of the CTA, and the Spanish arbitrators have revealed.
Antonio Rubinos, in a video published by the Spanish Football Federation, tells how the exam to be passed by referees and assistants in the main categories of Spanish football is scheduled and chosen: “We use the CloubLab tool where we put different activities and tools. We have over 1,000 classified game rule questions. For each question they have four possible questions and only one correct answer. We choose twenty questions to take the exam and we program them from what time to what time can they do it, how much time do they have and the level of success. We will put the cut mark at 90% to consider that the test is correct. “ “Periodically, the Technical Commission sends us a series of videos on plays that are developed throughout the season,” says Rivera Olmedo, referee for Primera Iberdrola.
An example of one of the questions in this questionnaire is the following: “An assistant referee signals that the ball has gone out on the side line. The referee does not see it and the game continues. An attacking player continues to play the ball and passes it to a teammate who scores the goal. The referee then sees the signal What decision does the referee make?Rivera Olmedo is clear on this and answers the option to: “He does not concede the goal and orders the game to be restarted with a throw-in, as the ball ceased to be in play when it went out on the touch line.”
Estrada Fernández, who was named as the best referee of last season in the First Division, answers another question: “When will a substitution be fully completed?” You have four options:
a] When the substituted player enters the field of play after the substitute's departure
b] When the substituted player leaves the field of play.
c] When the substitute enters the field.
d] When the substitute enters the field of play from any part.
The correct answer, and the one chosen by the Catalan committee referee, is c. When the substitute enters the field of play. Option a is cheating: the substituted player is the one who leaves, not the one who enters and vice versa. In b, the substitute is still missing to complete the action and in d, the substitute is the one who leaves the field.
Another of the issues is also revealed by the First Iberdrola collegiate: “If on a penalty kick the goalkeeper steps forward from the goal line with his two feet before the ball is kicked and stops him by not scoring a goal. What decision does the referee make?” The answer is: Warning the goalkeeper for unsportsmanlike conduct and send the penalty kick repeated. As seen this season on several occasions, the tresses remind goalkeepers that they must have at least one foot above the goal line when shooting.