In the midst of the storm unleashed by the revelation of the payments of the Fútbol Club Barcelona to José María Enríquez Negreira when he was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), other news related to the referees has sat like a shot between the parish of Atlético de Madrid. The designation of Jesus Gil Manzano to lead the Madrid derby at the Santiago Bernabéu.
The choice for such a notable clash of the referee attached to the Extremaduran school worries the rojiblancos, who have several of their arbitrations placed among their most recent nightmares. Implacable with any footballer, no matter how star he may be, to his credit he accumulates the expulsions of Joao Félix, Diego Costa or Gabi, and his actions came to provoke angry responses from Savic, the rojiblancas supporters clubs or even from the sports director Andrea Berta.
«With this referee you cannot speak, it is not normal that he draws 15 cards from us for each word. I prefer not to say anything else,” the Montenegrin defender exploded after a duel with Athletic Club Bilbao in which the Portuguese Joao Félix was sent off for slapping Unai Vencedor and after calling the referee ‘crazy’. A crack that Berta joined, going down to the tunnel after the game and snapping at Gil Manzano “Here never again!”.
Curiously, the most serious mattress complaints about Gil Manzano’s arbitrations did not occur in any derby. In addition to the aforementioned expulsion against Athletic, among the most unpleasant memories are clashes against Sevilla or Fútbol Club Barcelona.
Bad memories, but not in the derby
The relationship between the Atléticos and the Extremaduran referee began to go awry in the 2014-15 season, in a Copa del Rey tie that ended with the Madrid side in the ditch. Gil Manzano sent off Gabi at halftime and made them desperate. The image of the Turk Arda Turan losing his head and throwing a boot at the assistant will remain in the memory.
In the 2020-21 campaign he was the referee who directed a Sevilla-Atlético game at the Sánchez-Pizjuán with Simeone’s men playing the League. The locals won thanks to a goal from Acuña that was preceded by a very clear handball from Ocampos that neither Gil Manzano nor the VAR indicated.
Just one year later, the Extremaduran referee sent off Diego Costa in a match against Barcelona, later claiming in the minutes that he had done so because of the Brazilian’s insults. The striker always denied them and none of the television replays could capture the moment of contempt for the referee, but the Competition Committee decided to punish him with eight game suspensions, four for insults and another four for grabbing his arm after seeing the red card.
Not being the neighbor and eternal rival in any of these episodes, the anger and fear of the rojiblanco are understood by the appointment of a referee little given to dialogue and the management of tension in a game of as many shocks and nerves as it usually is a derby.
Soto Grado and the yellow to Ceballos
In addition, Atlético is still very aware of the performance of soto degree in the cup match against Real Madrid, in which Savic was sent off while Dani Ceballos got rid of a second yellow card that the rojiblancos considered clear. So great was the anger that Gil Marín issued a statement in which he went so far as to affirm that «with 0-1 in the 71st minute, leaving Real Madrid with 10 players in their stadium are big words. Anyone who observes it from the outside can see that the same thing has almost always happened for decades.