The match between Girona and Almería in Montilivi reached half-time with a 3-2 score in favor of Míchel Sánchez’s team after Iván Martín and Artem Dovbyk (2), came back in just six minutes, from 37 to 43, a double of Léo Baptistao.
What should have been a party for all the Girona players, was not for David López. The central defender, very upset, denounced before the Dazn cameras that the match referee Ortiz Arias had seriously insulted him during the match and had disrespected him: “he is arrogant,” he said. And he also added that it is common practice for this referee and that the rest of the La Liga players know him well.
“I respect everyone’s work, but the bad manners and the arrogance…I think all First Division players will agree, you can’t work like that, it’s very difficult. It disrespects you, it insults you,” he began López his intervention.
“I am referring to the referee, Miguel Ángel (Ortiz Arias), who the First Division players already know. It is an issue that is more human than professional, there can be no lack of respect, we are all in the same boat “, critical.
López made these statements at half-time, with an advantage on the scoreboard, also knowing that he still had the entire second half ahead of him and without anyone asking him about it. At the start of the second half, the referee forced him to put tape on his wrist to cover what appeared to be a bracelet that he did allow him to play with in the first half.
Once the match was over, Girona’s coach, Míchel Sánchez, asked the referee for “forgiveness” at a press conference. Míchel said that the footballer told him that the referee had insulted him and that Ortiz Arias called him to talk after the game “because he was worried about the statements”: “He told me that he has not insulted anyone. I told him that “If I hadn’t insulted him, I would apologize. It was a heat on the field and it has to stay there, for both parties.”
The coach pointed out that David López “was very hot” and that he hopes he will not be sanctioned, since he is “an example as a professional and as a person on and off the field. He has been a professional for many years and his conduct is impeccable.”
“We can all make mistakes, but it was hot and at half-time and I hope it stays there. I don’t think there will be any type of sanction because he hasn’t spoken about the referee in a negative way either, about his performance, but simply about a personal feeling “said Míchel.
He also acknowledged that “I wish” the audios of the referees were public and that “visibility was given to everything that happens on the field of play. Since they put the cameras in the locker room, it would also seem good to see how people talk to the VAR, the referee. It is already done in some countries.”
The last actor to comment on what happened was the Referees Committee, which once listened to the complete audios of the Girona-Almería match, “recorded as indicated in the VAR protocol”, reported that the referee “at no time insults or “disrespects the player number 5 of Girona, Mr. David López. He only warns him that if he continues with this behavior he will be forced to show him the second warning.”
The CTA invites the player, the club’s coaching staff and any directors “that the entity deems appropriate to listen to the audio of the match at the CTA headquarters.” And he also requests that “once the hearing is over, we will request a public rectification in the same terms as he made his statements,” he concludes.
