Real Madrid president Florentino Perez accused of trying to influence a referee
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has been accused by former La Liga referee Iturralde Gonzalez of trying to put pressure on him after a game in October 2010.
It comes as Barcelona face corruption charges over alleged payments to a company owned by an ex-vice-president of Spain's referees' committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, as part of what prosecutors have described as an advantageous secret agreement with the Blaugrana.
Real even released a statement over the weekend that communicated the club’s ‘utmost concern’ about those alleged corrupt practices at Barcelona.
Gonzalez was a referee in La Liga for 17 years and alleges that Perez approached him after the aforementioned game 12 and a half years ago – a 6-1 in for Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid over Deportivo – asking him to ‘whistle as you do for Barca’.
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The revelation came during an appearance on radio station Cadena SER.
“I ask him if this is a joke and tell him that the discussion is over,” Gonzalez said. “He wanted to isolate me in a private room but I refused…that person is Florentino Perez. I don't have to hide from what happened because it is written in the report of the technical committee of referees.”
Gonzalez was motivated to make his comments after Real Madrid TV produced a video on former referee Carlos Clos Gomez, who is now VAR chief in Spanish football, which included statistics and clips highlighting perceived controversial decisions that went against Los Blancos.
A follow up video from Real Madrid TV starts with, “This is Iturralde González, the referee who has finally taken off his mask and is now dedicated to attacking Real Madrid from the media,” and again highlights supposed mistakes he made that went against them.