Florentino Perez asks Spanish FA to bring in English referees to improve standard of officiating

The Real Madrid president made the remark to the president of the Spanish FA

President of the Spanish FA, Rafael Louzan, revealed that Perez has jokingly threatened to bring in English officials in order to improve the standard of refereeing in La Liga.

It came as Louzan addressed the issue of officiating standards in the country on El Cafelito podcast.

He revealed Perez has been vocal about his concerns following the Negreira case involving Barcelona.

Last year Barcelona avoided going on trial after authorities investigated allegations of payments made from the club to the then-vice president of the Spanish referee's committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Louzan explained that he has a good relationship with the Real Madrid president who is persistent with highlighting poor officiating standards.

He said: "My relationship with Florentino Perez, which was before this, is good.

"The thing is that Florentino states emphatically that he feels harmed in the field of refereeing and so on.

"I tell him that it [the Negreira case'] is in the hands of justice. What am I going to decide?

"He told me one day that he was going to bring in English referees to whistle

"In Saudi Arabia a year ago, he took me aside and said: “you have to resolve this issue of the referees that is harming us and we have lost many titles because of the referees”’.

Perez's proposal to bring in English officials will cause plenty of humour in England where referees are often criticised for strange decisions and poor officiating.

The most recent incident came on the weekend when Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off for supposedly stopping a break as the last man.

The ban has since been overturned.