Guadalupe Porras starred in one of the most shocking images of the weekend. The assistant of the League match between Betis and Athletic was involuntarily hit with a television camera during the first half, which forced her to be taken off the field on a stretcher and be treated and checked for the blow at the hospital.
This Monday the first images of the accident that occurred just after the Betic player Chimy Ávila opened the scoring of the match came to light, when he collided with the camera just as he was recovering his position towards the center of the field and he was heading to the goal celebration area. The impact is tremendous.
Dazed and with a lot of blood flowing from the wound, she was treated by the Betis and Athletic medical services on the same pitch, but she could not continue and had to be replaced by the fourth referee, Néstor Holgueras Castellanos.
She was transferred to a health center, where various tests were performed to check her condition after suffering “a severe facial trauma with a wound” and undergoing surgery to suture the wound on her face, according to these sources.
In the referee’s report, Guillermo Cuadra Fernández narrates in the other observations chapter that in the 13th minute, a cameraman placed himself “in the work area” of his assistant when he was going to move towards the center of the field. “As a consequence of this action on the part of the television cameraman, there was a violent blow to my assistant’s head with said camera, which caused him to have a large incised-blunt wound on his face and also lost consciousness. left stunned on the ground,” he added.
The referee indicated that the medical services of both clubs attended to her but that she had to be transferred from the stadium by ambulance to a hospital and that at that moment he told the cameraman to “immediately leave the area since they endanger the physical integrity of the players.” participants (in this case they have hit the assistant but they are also placed in a work area of ??the players)”.
“Initially he left and spoke during the break with the LaLiga match directors. Later in the second half said cameraman reappeared in the same area and on one occasion he was looking at assistant 1, who in this case was mark the regulations has become the fourth referee, I perceived that the cameraman was bothering this time the players and physical trainers who were doing warm-up exercises,” added Cuadra Fernández, who remembers that following the protocol he placed Guadalupe Porras at the fourth referee.
Porras, 37, in 2019 in Son Moix became the first woman to assist in a Men’s First Division match in the League, specifically in a Mallorca-Eibar match on the first day. The woman from Extremadura, with more than 20 years of experience, began her refereeing career in regional categories. Porras progressively climbed from Third Division, passing through Second B and Second until making his debut in the highest category.
She was also the first Spanish woman to participate in a men’s international competition as a match assistant. She was in a Europa League match between Austrian LASK and Bulgarian Ludogorets.