Alfonso Perez tells his exciting story with Barcelona stars and Guardiola!
The famous Spanish referee tells the most difficult match he refereed for Barcelona
Retired international referee Alfonso Perez Borrull told the story of his first match as a referee for Barcelona, stressing that the Blaugrana stars caused him tension, which led to him having a bad match.
Alfonso said during statements to Radio Marca: “Pep Guardiola told me you will know what Barcelona is, and it was in his team’s match against Real Oviedo, and I had refereed 4 or 5 matches in the first division, and it was going badly for me, from those days when you are new in the first division and face difficulties.”
He added: “It was not my best match, I awarded a penalty kick and showed the red card to Couto, the Barcelona defender, because he thought it would be awarded, so he held the ball with his hand, but I did not award it, and I showed him the second yellow card and sent him off, I said we started the evening well.”
“The big team starts to put a lot of pressure on you, I was refereeing badly because I was nervous because they wanted to get you out of the game, and Rivaldo took a penalty kick that hit the post and it was awarded, I didn’t realize what was happening and I said to Rivaldo at the time: ‘I was going to put it in the corner’.
The retired referee added: “At that time, Pep Guardiola’s personality appeared, who was warming up for the game, and when he passed by me he said to me you will know what Barcelona is, I will never forget that, then I awarded two fouls and showed the yellow card twice and the red card once”.
The referee concluded his statements by saying: “I don’t know if I was doing something wrong, but what I will not allow is to be overwhelmed, and that was the feeling, and the players of the small teams never showed it.”