The world of Spanish football woke up this January 20, 2026 in a state of shock after the events that occurred at the Reale Arena in San Sebastián. FC Barcelona, ​​the undisputed leader of LaLiga until just a few hours ago, suffered a 2-1 defeat against Real Sociedad in a match marked by the controversial refereeing by Extremaduran referee Jesús Gil Manzano.

What could have been just another day on the calendar has become the trigger for an unprecedented institutional crisis, with Blaugrana president Joan Laporta leading a response that promises to change the course of the championship.

The match began with Barcelona clearly dominating. Hansi Flick’s men generated an offensive avalanche from the opening minutes, creating clear chances and showing why they are the fittest team in Europe in recent weeks. However, the scoreboard did not reflect the culé’s superiority on the pitch. Three goals were disallowed for the visiting team during the first half and part of the second, decisions that set off alarms on the bench and in the presidential box.

The first of the invalidated goals came very early, in a play that seemed legal according to the initial replays. Shortly after, another Blaugrana goal was ruled out due to an alleged prior foul, and the third, the work of a key player in the attack, fell due to a millimeter offside that the VAR supported with a controversial frame. Furthermore, the culés insistently demanded a clear penalty that was not awarded, in an action within the txuri-urdin area that many considered obvious. Four posts, 24 shots (9 on goal) and a clear feeling of injustice accompanied the blaugranas’ afternoon.

But the controversy did not end there. In added time, Frenkie de Jong, team captain, was reprimanded after asking the referee to add more minutes due to the continuous interruptions. “It’s frustrating. I’m the captain and I can’t even talk to him. He looks at me as if I were above you. Something similar happened here last year,” declared De Jong in the mixed zone, visibly indignant.

His words resonated like an echo of the complaints accumulated against Gil Manzano, a referee who has a complicated history with Barcelona: nine defeats in 45 games coached in the 21st century, the worst record for any referee with the Catalans.

Hansi Flick, for his part, opted for restraint at a press conference: “I don’t want to waste energy talking about that referee. Everyone saw it. There are very good referees in LaLiga, but we all know what this referee is like.” The German coach, who already suffered an expulsion with Gil Manzano months ago against Girona, avoided going deeper, but the discomfort was palpable throughout the locker room.

The image that hurt the Blaugrana expedition the most occurred at the end of the match. Upon leaving the tunnel, Joan Laporta and the board ran into the referee leadership celebrating and hugging each other profusely, as if they had achieved a victory of their own. That scene, captured by cameras, was the last straw for the culé leader.

Hours after the final whistle, Laporta did not bite his tongue. In a series of explosive statements to the press and in internal club communications, he announced a battery of drastic measures that have shaken the foundations of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). The president of Barcelona confirmed that the club will present a formal complaint to the RFEF demanding the immediate disqualification of Jesús Gil Manzano from refereeing any FC Barcelona match for the remainder of the season.

But the most incendiary decision came next: Laporta announced that the club is seriously studying the possibility of turning to the TAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) and European bodies if the RFEF does not act forcefully. Sources close to the Blaugrana board assure that an exhaustive report is being prepared with all the negative refereeing records against Gil Manzano in recent years, including controversial expulsions of key players, dubious decisions in decisive matches and patterns that, according to the club, demonstrate “a clear animosity” towards the entity.

“This man has a fantastic resume with us. Something always happens when he whistles for our games. We don’t feel comfortable knowing that he is going to be in the center of the field,” were the verbatim words of Laporta, who repeated on several occasions his discomfort at the referee’s “arrogant attitude.” The president did not hesitate to describe Sunday’s refereeing as “shameful” and “detrimental to the competition”, insinuating that decisions like these could “seriously alter the LaLiga classification”.

The impact on the table is immediate and devastating. With this defeat, Barcelona misses three vital points in the fight for the title. Real Sociedad is getting dangerously close, and other teams like Real Madrid or Atlético could take advantage of the setback to reduce the gap. If the culé club carries out its threat and forces a thorough review of the refereeing system, the classification could be altered not only by results on the field, but by possible sanctions or replays of matches in the event that serious irregularities are demonstrated.

The Blaugrana fans have exploded on social networks, where hashtags like #GilManzanoFuera and #LaportaActua are already trending worldwide. Thousands of culés demand firm measures, remembering past episodes such as Gerard Piqué’s famous fight in 2022 (“You are the referee who has screwed us up the most, always”) or the recurring complaints from players and coaches.

Meanwhile, there has still been no official response from the RFEF and the CTA, although internal sources indicate that they are urgently analyzing the case. What is clear is that Joan Laporta does not plan to sit idly by. His decision to directly confront the Federation marks a before and after in the relationship between Barcelona and the Spanish refereeing establishments.

Spanish football holds its breath. Will this be the beginning of a refereeing revolution? Or just another chapter in the eternal war between Barcelona and the referees? The only thing that is certain is that, after what happened in Anoeta, nothing will be the same again. LaLiga, its credibility and its classification hang by a thread that Joan Laporta is willing to pull with all his might.