A Liga BBVA assistant referee has told anti-corruption officials he was pressured by the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) to support Real Madrid in the upcoming Clasico against Barcelona in November.
Jacinto Vicente, the lawyer of the unnamed official, told Barcelona based newspaper Sport that a formal complaint has been made to the public prosecutor’s office in Barcelona, with the assistant referee told to “prejudice the interests of one of the clubs, Barcelona.”
According to Spanish radio network COPE,the copy of the document presented by Vicente, reads: “In this context, in the middle of September, with two months still to go [before the Clasico], a referee said to my client he had received, and I quote, ‘an instruction directly from someone inside.’
“The guidelines said that they could be the refereeing team for the Clasico even though it has still not been named, nor will it be until closer to the date between Madrid and Barcelona on Nov. 21. In the case that they were designated the game, it was indicated that they must try to referee the game in a certain manner, in more certain terms, to prejudice the interests of one of the clubs, Barcelona.”
The case began with the assistant referee allegedly receiving a phone call in mid-September from the match official he usually works with.
Vicente’s document reads that the match official was told “it would be more convenient if the most difficult decisions in this game are not taken by the main referee, as it generates more controversy in the media but by [my client] the assistant. If the decisions are made by the assistant, it was considered, less controversy would be generated and it would also dilute more quickly. In addition, it was also stated that this practice has already been tested in 2014-15 and that, precisely, on that occasion the main referee was exposed and criticised by the media. For that reason, it was convenient to be more subtle.”
photo credit: Marc Puig i Perez
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The assistant referee alleges that CTA spokesman Jose Angel Jimenez Munoz de Morales phoned him a few days after the first call in September, told him the CTA knew of his refusal to follow instructions, and advised him to do as told or else face the end of his refereeing career.
The assistant referee says that he did not record the phone conversation because he didn’t expect it, but that the number of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) switchboard had shown up.
Jacinto Vicente told Barcelona based newspaper Sport: “One person let me know about a referee that had a problem and wanted to talk with me. It’s deducible that he is not from Barcelona (because if he was he would not have been chosen for the game). For a professional reason I had to go to Barcelona, where I met with him. He explained everything that had occurred and wanted to go public with the pressure being put on him because it’s the only way to clean up Spanish football and the only way to change a closed system. I advised him that it was not the best solution to publish the claims, but that the normal thing to do would be to report it to the police. It scared him because he didn’t want his name to come out. If it does, he could have a serious professional problem. I told him that he should speak with the police first and the prosecution. On October 19 I got in contact with the police and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor began investigating the case.”
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