OFFICIAL! The refereeing news that FC Barcelona will have to face in LaLiga 24/25

The start of LaLiga EA Sports 2024/25 is getting closer and, in order for all parties to be aware of the fundamentals of the refereeing criteria, the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) has issued a circular in which it has outlined the major innovations that will be implemented in certain sections of the regulations. Below, at FCBN, we discuss some of these modifications.

Additional substitution for concussion

At this point, official status has been given to the introduction of an additional substitution in the event of a concussion. What does this mean? That all teams will have one more substitution, in addition to the usual five, which they can only use if a player suffers a severe head impact. However, this variant will only come into effect once the medical services, after examining the player, determine that they cannot continue on the field.

Semi-automatic offside

Regarding VAR, the regulations have not undergone major changes compared to the rules that have been in place in previous seasons. However, to the referees' advantage, they will now have an additional tool to minimize the margin of error in their decisions: the semi-automatic offside.

Protests to the referee can only be channeled through the team captain

Similarly, protests about certain actions on the field, following the FIFA and UEFA protocol, can only be carried out by the team captain, who is the only one authorized to communicate with the referee. It should be noted that, if the captain is the goalkeeper, they can designate a field player to be responsible for the communication between players and the referee. All of this, as stated by the CTA, should be done "with mutual respect, and if this principle is violated, the referee will take the appropriate disciplinary actions".