ONE | system
Itoralda Gonzalez (screenshot)
After Real Madrid announced that it would take action against Barcelona following the Negira affair and the bribe allegedly given to a former official of the Spanish referees’ union, there is a surprising twist in the plot. Former Spanish top referee Itoralda Gonzalez has revealed that Blancos president Florentino Perez put pressure on him during his time as a referee.
Itoralda was interviewed in Spain and claimed that Florentino Perez tried to lock him in a room during a match, when he asked him to referee Real Madrid matches just like Barca. It was in the 2010/11 season after the Whites’ game against Deportivo La Coruna: “Do you know who called me to a separate room in the Santiago Bernabeu? Investigate it and see how they tried to put pressure on people.”
Gonzalez continued: “When the game ended 6:1, we left the field and Peres put me in the room and said he was only asking for the same judgment as Barca’s. I asked him if it was a joke, he answered ‘no’ and I told him the call was over. He wanted to put me alone in the room and I refused. After half an hour, I updated the judges union committee. Now they say there is an investigation, so I will make your job easier – start from the top.”
Itoralda Gonzalez concluded: “This has not happened to me again, no president has asked to speak to me in a separate room. For me, from the facts, the one who put me in a separate room is Florentino Peres and I don’t have to hide. There is a report and I announced it at the time, so let them see what it means to pressure judges. I will not hide, there are no corrupt judges, we are above it.”
Then he also referred to the Negira case and claimed: “Nagarira had no influence on judges, it’s a big fallacy to say it like that in public because he had no power. There was a corrupt person on behalf of Florentino Perez who made a wrong report on Klaus Gomes (another referee), Gomes is a man of integrity and what Real Madrid is doing is low”.
The former referee meant that Real Madrid’s TV channel published a video with mistakes made by referee Klaus Gomes during his time as a referee: “This is a scary and unfair report, whoever made it is corrupt, Gomes was also wrong 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 times in favor of Real and only showed his mistakes against her”.
