Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, CEO of Atlético de Madrid, said on Wednesday that the “public comments” by Carlos Velasco Carballo, president of the Technical Referees Committee, on Thomas Lemar's action against Villarreal and whether it should have been a red card, “They are very dangerous, because they condition the decisions of the referees” who must referee the rojiblanco team.
“I do not understand why the president of the Technical Committee of Referees publicly rebukes one of the best referees that we have in Spain (Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea), and more in a decision that can never be considered an error. The referee appreciates a play on the field and makes a decision after watching it on television, like the vast majority of football fans, “he told EFE.
In that sense, Gil Marín states that “whoever has played football, whoever knows Thomas Lemar, can only coincide with the referee's criteria in the play.” “He does not try to attack the opposing player, or even get him out of his way, he just wants to continue the play avoiding him when he suddenly finds it while trying to progress on an attacking play, “he added.
And he concluded: “These public comments are very dangerous because they condition the decisions of the referees who must referee us and give the feeling that we have been benefited by an arbitration error, when it is not like that.”
What Velasco Carballo said
On Tuesday, at a press conference, Velasco Carballo talks about Lemar's move, sanctioned with a yellow card after the VAR review. “The referee is going to see her on the monitor, he disagrees with his partner and for him that play is not red and is a yellow card. Well, perfect (…). Now, later we have to analyze as the Technical Committee of Referees who we think that has made the correct decision, the one who called you from the VAR who thought it was a red card or the field referee who has decided on a yellow card. We do this analysis, we debate with our team and we say, guys, for us this is red and this should be the criterion to follow, “he said at one point in his response.
In the SER, Velasco assured that he was wrongly expressed and that all he wanted to say was that in the event of a discrepancy between the referee and VAR, the Technical Committee must decide, but he did not refer to Lemar's move specifically.