Former La Liga referee Iturralde Gonzalez revealed that he was locked in a room by Real President Florentino Perez and threatened for favoring Barca.
“You can see how they try to put pressure on certain people,” Gonzalez said on the Carrusel Deportivo show. “In a match Real beat Deportivo 6-1, when the game was over, we left the field and the assistants went with me. One person locked me in a room and said, ‘I just ask you to whistle our matches like Barca’.
Perez was accused of pressuring the referee to give Real an advantage over Barca. Photo: EFE
The 56-year-old former referee mentioned the match in October 2010, in La Liga. According to Gonzalez, it was Perez who invited him into his private room to question how Barca’s matches were run. Real president that day also said that Gonzalez often makes decisions in favor of rivals.
After being pressured by Perez, Gonzalez filed a complaint with the La Liga Arbitration Committee (CTA). But no punishment was given to Perez or Real and the case quickly sank.
“After about half an hour, the CTA found out. I informed them, because it was a serious matter for me. But no action was taken,” Gonzalez said.
The former referee said that was the only time he was pressured by a club president. “No president has ever invited me into a private room. And that’s Florentino Perez. I have nothing to hide. It’s the truth. If you want to verify, you can read the CTA’s report, because I informed them.”
Recently, Real announced that it was ready to participate in the investigation against Barca when the Catalan team was accused of bribing a former CTA vice president in exchange for the referee’s match reports. The process of unraveling the case is still ongoing. Barca and Real will meet in the El Clasico match of La Liga on March 19.
