Artificial intelligence is being introduced into Spain’s efforts to make football refereeing more transparent. For the new season, the Spanish Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) is changing its Tiempo de Revisión programme so that AI will select the most notable refereeing incidents from each round for public analysis. Previously, a committee of former players and coaches selected the cases.
The AI system will identify controversial incidents across Spain’s first and second divisions and the women’s league. Once the cases are selected, refereeing officials will still perform the actual technical analysis, explaining the relevant laws and acknowledging whether the referee made the correct decision or an error. The CTA says AI should make the selection process more objective and traceable.
Importantly, AI is not replacing the referees or making the final judgments. The technology is being used primarily as a filtering and selection mechanism. The CTA can also add an incident if it considers it particularly valuable for education or training, although it cannot remove cases selected by the AI system. This keeps human expertise at the center while using AI to help determine which incidents deserve public scrutiny.
The move is part of a wider transparency initiative. Spain's refereeing authorities have also launched “Card,” a digital guide explaining controversial refereeing situations, including video examples, with the goal of helping clubs, players, coaches, journalists and supporters understand how the laws are applied. The broader significance is that AI is entering football governance not necessarily to make decisions, but to help organizations identify, organize and explain decisions more consistently.
