In Madrid, a long-running argument over football’s technological age has reached a clear first-instance conclusion: the video assistant referee system used across FIFA competitions has been judged distinct from the model claimed by Spanish author Francisco Antonio López Romera.
The Commercial Section of Madrid’s Court of First Instance No. 6 dismissed López Romera’s lawsuit against FIFA and the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 30 September. His action had sought €300 million in compensation, alleging that the use of VAR in football infringed intellectual-property rights connected to his work, Football of the 21st Century – Future Technology for Refereeing Teams.
López Romera maintained that he had devised the relevant technological concept in a work recorded with the Intellectual Property Registry in 1999, 2016 and 2025. He argued that the video-refereeing arrangements now used in the game were founded on the system set out in those registrations.
The Madrid court found otherwise. Its ruling concluded that the VAR described in the claimant’s material does not correspond to the system developed, registered and implemented by FIFA. The decision noted a practical difference at the heart of modern video review: López Romera’s proposed model did not require play to be stopped, whereas the current protocol can halt the match and allow the referee to inspect footage at the pitch-side monitor.
The judgment also identified wider technical differences. It found no match between the systems’ structure, plans, design, technical data, scientific references or the technical tools made available for video refereeing. In the court’s assessment, FIFA’s operating model was neither the same system nor an identical reproduction of the one advanced in the claim.
The case had previously reached Madrid’s Provincial Court in April 2024, when requests for precautionary measures were rejected. That earlier decision did not determine the substance of the intellectual-property dispute, which has now been dismissed in full by the commercial court.
López Romera has also been ordered to meet the legal costs. He has 20 days in which to file an appeal before Madrid’s Provincial Court.
