He is affiliated with the
Madrid committee and has officiated in
Spanish Primera División since 2004, as well as in international matches since 2008. Velasco officiated
2011 UEFA Europa League Final match in
Dublin, between
Porto and
Braga. On 20 December 2011, UEFA named him one of the twelve referees for
UEFA Euro 2012. Velasco took charge of the tournament's opening match between
Poland and
Greece, issuing a first-half red card to Greek defender
Sokratis Papastathopoulos, before sending-off
Poland goalkeeper
Wojciech Szczęsny in the second period as the teams drew 1–1 in
Warsaw. He was also a referee in the
2014 FIFA World Cup, in which he officiated the quarterfinal match between
Brazil and
Colombia. He was criticized for making bad calls and favoring Brazil by many people, including former referee
Graham Poll and
Radamel Falcao, who tweeted, "For the next match remember to call the referee who didn't show up today". A Colombian lawyer also claimed to be suing FIFA for $1.3 billion because of their bad referee choices. Since 2017, Velasco is responsible for
video assistant referee system integration into
Spanish La Liga starting from season 2018/2019. ==Notes==