Former referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez has hit back at Real Madrid president over Barcelona’s referee corruption case.
Gonzalez slammed the club for criticising the decisions of current VAR director Clos Gomez, and Iturralde Gonzalez also accused Perez of trying to bribe him.
Iturralde Gonzalez stated as he defended the VAR chief: “The report that has come out about Clos Gómez is creepy, it is indecent. For Clos Gómez I put my hand in the fire, but not for the one who made that report. Because the one who has done it is a sellout to his boss.
“Clos Gómez is a person of integrity who has been wrong 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 times against and in favour of Real Madrid and they have only brought up his mistakes. And they have just brought up his mistakes when the prosecution files the lawsuit. What Real Madrid Television has done is crawling.”
Iturralde Gonzalez went on Carrusel Deportivo and claimed that the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, tried to separate him from his assistant referees, after a massive win against Deportivo de La Coruna.
“It is the modus operandi of this television (Real Madrid TV). Since they are journalists, who calls me to a separate room? Investigate it. So you can see how certain people try to put pressure on,” he stated.
“In a 6-1 match against Deportivo: the game ends, we left the field and the assistants came with me. There is a person who puts me in a room and says: ‘I only ask you to whistle at me the same as Barça’.
“He’s from Real Madrid. I ask him to see if he’s making a joke and I tell him that the conversation is over. He wanted to put me alone in the room, but I told him no. After half an hour the Technical Committee already knew of Referees (CTA).
“I informed them, it seemed very serious to me, but there it was. There was nothing. As those of Real Madrid TV are good journalists, let them investigate. I’m going to make their job easier: start from the top. It hasn’t happened to me more times, no president has put me in a separate room. I care about the facts.
“The one who put me in a separate room was Florentino Pérez. I don’t have to hide. There is a CTA report, because I put it in history. So that they see what it is to press. I am not going to hide. There is no corrupt referee, we are above that.”
