Hernández Hernández will not referee the Barcelona-Real Madrid Clásico after Roberto Gómez said the CTA has removed him from the appointment. Gómez said on La Tribu that the official originally chosen for the match is out, and that another name now has to be decided.
The change matters because El Clásico was already being watched for the referee before a ball is kicked. Mourinho had complained on two occasions that it was surprising the name of the official had come out so early, and Gómez said those protests helped push the CTA toward a rethink.
Gómez put it bluntly: “El que iba a ser era Hernández Hernández” and then, in the same discussion, “Hernández Hernández no pita.” He said the committee wanted an experienced official, even a World Cup referee, and that it did not want to hand Mourinho more ammunition. In his words, “No quieren darle munición a Mourinho.”
The same account left the final appointment open. Gómez suggested that another referee, such as Alberola or Sánchez Martínez, could end up taking the match, but he did not name a confirmed replacement. That is the part still missing from the story: the CTA has moved on from Hernández Hernández, yet the official who will actually take charge of Barcelona-Real Madrid has not been announced in the material at hand.
Gómez’s comments also landed in a wider climate of scrutiny over officiating. He argued that the president of the referees does not owe explanations, even as pressure continues around controversial decisions and demands for more transparency. He linked that broader discussion to a planned meeting between Fran Soto and Sevilla representatives over refereeing decisions in the Real Madrid-Sevilla match, a reminder that the argument over how these calls are handled is not confined to one fixture.
That is why today’s shift is more than a name change. It shows the CTA reacting to noise before the biggest domestic match in Spanish football, and it leaves one unavoidable question hanging over the build-up: who will take the whistle when El Clásico finally arrives?
