Seven of the eight international Spanish referees, appointed this week in Europe
Seven of the eight international referees that Spanish arbitration currently has have been appointed for the qualifiers scheduled this week in the previous rounds of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. The only one who has not entered is the World Cup player Alejandro Hernández Hernández, who just returned from the World Cup just a few weeks ago and has also been in the Spanish refereeing concentration of the Primera referees, held from July 28 to August 1 in Las Caldas.
Two of them, Jesús Gil Manzano and José María Sánchez Martínez, have been chosen by UEFA for the first leg matches of the third qualifying round of the Champions League. In the case of Gil Manzano it is the duel between the Israeli Hapoel Be’er Sheva against the Crvena Zvezda of Serbia. He will be accompanied on the wings by Guadalupe Porras and Javier Martínez Nicolás. Fourth is Francisco Javier Hernández Maeso and in the VAR are the two from Madrid, Valentín Pizarro (from the specific VAR body) and the referee Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias.
In the case of Sánchez Martínez from Murcia, he has been appointed to the Greek Olympiacos against NEC Nijmegen of the Netherlands. The Catalan Víctor García Verdura, future international referee since January 1, 2027, is the fourth official. In the VAR there are César Soto Grado and the relegated First Division who was an international referee who passes to the specific VAR body, Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz.
There are also two Spanish referees appointed in the first leg of the third round of the Europa League. This is Javier Alberola Rojas who whistles for Hungarian Ferencvaros against Gornik Zabrze of Poland. He is accompanied by Isidro Díaz de Mera as the fourth. Also on the VAR is the international referee, Ricardo de Burgos Bengoechea and Miguel Sesma as AVAR. Juan Martínez Munuera calls the other duel of this competition between the Greek Paok and the Belgian Anderlecht with the international Balearic referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer as fourth. Javier Iglesias Villanueva and Juan Luis Pulido Santana act as VAR and AVAR.
The relationship is completed with José Luis Munuera Montero in the match of the same round in the Conference League between Latvian Auda and Dinamo City of Albania. Adrián Cordero Vega acts as fourth while Javier Iglesias Villanueva, who repeats the match, is in the VAR accompanied by Luis Mario Milla as AVAR.
Almost fully Spanish with seven of the eight international referees available right now given that neither Alejandro Quintero nor Víctor García Verdura will have this condition until January, who will occupy the places of Guillermo Cuadra Fernández and Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz. In total, eleven of the twenty First Division referees have been appointed.
