Ramón Jesurún, chairman of Colombia’s soccer association Dimayor, has
openly admitted that the current level of refereeing in this country is
reason for concern.
The public debate was fueled on Saturday when a series of bad calls by referee Adrián Vélez dominated the Bogotá derby between Santa Fé and Millonarios. The away side had two penalty claims denied in the first half but were instead awarded a highly disputable spot kick in the second. Santa Fé keeper Agustín Julio never touched Millonarios forward Carmelo Valencia, but was sent off in addition to having a penalty called against him.
Following the match, Vélez refused to admit that he made mistakes and provided several, not very credible reasons to explain his decisions.
Jesurún criticized those that are responsible for the appointing of referees, wonder why they did failed to pick someone with FIFA status for this match. In addition, the president distanced himself from Vélez declarations.
Dimayor has invested a significant amount of money in a so called Arbitration Commission, but the results seem to be lacking so far. “We never invested this much in arbitration matters before. We have had seminars, we established panels, we invested 250 million pesos in communication techniques, but we don’t see the results,” Jesurún said.
The president went on to reject the possibility of attracting foreign referees to lead Colombian matches, saying that the “remedy would be worse than the illness”.
As for Carmelo Valencia, the Millonarios player will likely be given a one-match suspension for his simulation against Santa Fé.