World Sports: The Spanish Football Association recommends increasing the referee s annual salary by 2%. Currently, the annual salary of the La Liga referee is about 300,000 euros

According to the World Sports Report, the Spanish Football Association recommends increasing the referee's annual salary by 2%, and the current annual salary of the referee's referee is about 300,000 euros. The pre-season meeting of Spanish football referees and assistant referees will begin on Monday (July 28), the first meeting since Francesco Soto served as chairman of the referee committee, with the main topic being raising referees' compensation. It is understood that the referees have received a salary adjustment plan proposed by the Spanish Football Association, which was proposed after consultation with the La Liga. The new plan recommends increasing referees' annual salary by 2%, calculated based on the income they earned in the 2024/2025 season. Initially, the employer proposed a 1% increase, but it was finally determined to be 2%. This proposal is currently under review and has been submitted to the lawyers for analysis.

This step is crucial for all referees to sign contracts for the 2025/2026 season, which have not been signed yet. It is worth noting that since a few seasons ago, all referees, assistant referees and video assistant referees (VARs), etc. have signed contracts based on the season.

Currently, the annual salary of the La Liga referee is about 300,000 euros, while the annual salary of the Spanish Second Division referee is 140,000 euros. In addition, they can get about 4,500 euros per game, while in the Spanish Second Division it is about 2,000 euros. As VAR referees, they can get about 2,200 euros per game in La Liga, and about 1,000 euros in Spanish Second Division.

In recent years, due to the increase in participation of VAR referees, the referees' game revenue has decreased. The top-flight assistant referee earns about 150,000 euros per year, which is similar to the VAR referee's income. In fact, VAR referees have expressed their hope that they will earn more than their assistant referees because they think their decisions are more important in modern football than linesman.