MADRID, 3 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Murcian referee Ángel Franco Martínez, who caused referees in Spain to be known by two surnames, has died at the age of 85, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed this Saturday.
“The RFEF wishes to express its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Ángel Franco Martínez, international First Division referee from 1969 to 1986. He officiated two matches in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. He was also vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees until 2018. Rest in peace,” said the federative body on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
The coincidence of his first surname with that of the dictator Francisco Franco caused, at the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies – when referees were still known only by a surname -, uncomfortable headlines for the regime, who urged the arbitration bodies and the media to designate the braids by their two surnames.
The Murcian coached in the Second Division between 1966 and 1969, the year in which he was promoted to the First Division, where he debuted in Pontevedra-Granada. In total, he administered justice in the highest category of Spanish football for 16 seasons, until 1986. Later, he was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the RFEF.