Real Madrid and San Lorenzo have been involved in a battle to select the referee for Saturday night’s World Club Cup final in Marrakech.
It is no surprise. Suspicion about referees is as old as any game between the European and South American champions.
Historically, the champions of football’s two strongest continents met in a two-legged play-off known as the Intercontinental Cup, which was so mired in controversy and scandal that several European champions refused to partake in the 1970s, and it has been run in the current format since 2000.
For Saturday night’s game, Fifa’s Referees Committee chose Portuguese ref Pedro Proenca to officiate but San Lorenzo’s president Matias Lammens, 34, objected to a European referee.
That infuriated Madrid before Fifa called a meeting with the inexperienced Guatemalan Walter Lopez, from a neutral continent, now the favourite to officiate.
Madrid have won their past 21 games and are closing in on Brazilian side Curitiba’s 24-game winning run in 2011 and Ajax’s record of 26 consecutive wins in 1971/72.
Madrid are clear favourites to beat a side who struggled to overcome New Zealand part-timers Auckland City 2-1, but the Argentines will agitate for a “neutral” referee.
One of the worst instances of dubious play in the Intercontinental Cup came in 1967 when Celtic, the first British club to be crowned European champions that year, needed three games to separate them from Racing of Buenos Aires.
Celtic’s goalkeeper was hit by a projectile thrown from the stands and the deciding third game was known as “the Battle of Montevideo”. Thirty fouls were given to Celtic and 21 to Racing over 90 minutes in a tie that saw six players sent off.
A year later Manchester United, met another Argentine side, Estudiantes, in a game they would lose 1-0. “We walked out of the dressing room and emerged from the tunnel,” United midfielder Paddy Crerand recalled. “A big bag of what appeared to be minced meat was thrown from the stand and exploded over Bobby Charlton’s shirt. The police and referee did nothing.”
The situation deteriorated further a year later when AC Milan met Estudiantes. Two Italian players were assaulted and Argentinian goalkeeper Alberto Polletti earned a life ban for punching Milan star Gianni Rivera and breaking the nose of Milan’s Argentine striker Nestor Combin. In a bizarre twist, Combin was arrested on a desertion charge as he left the field. He was released after international pressure.
Estudiantes returned a year later when their defender Oscar Malbernat ripped the glasses off Feyenoord’s Joop van Daele and trampled on them claiming that he was “not allowed to play with glasses”.
Hostilities continued when Ajax’s Johann Cruyff received death threats before his side played another Argentinian side, Independiente, in a 1972 clash. Ajax won, but such was the physicality of the match, they refused to play the following season.
Bayern Munich also refused to enter the Intercontinental Cup in 1974 and 1975 as their opponents would be Argentinian teams, but while such overt scandal has been short in recent decades, suspicion remains.
San Lorenzo, backed by 5,000 vociferous travelling fans, aim to win the cup for the first time.
Madrid were the first winners in 1960 and also triumphed in 1998 and 2002, when Iker Casillas was in their squad. The goalkeeper, 33, is the only player who remains in Madrid’s side from 12 years ago and plays his 700th club game on Saturday night.
On Saturday night, a rejuvenated Casillas, who has saved penalties in his last two matches, expects to play his 700th Real Madrid game. With his team aiming for a fourth trophy of 2014, it’s being taken very seriously by both sides. That’s if they can agree on a referee first.
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