After the accusations, how the conflict between the president of Talleres and the referee is resolved

A president who claims to have received a blow from the referee. The referee himself claims to have seen two of the leader’s guards armed in his locker room. A scandal that occurred on the field and threatens to be resolved in ordinary justice. Argentine football once again showed its darkest side in the early hours of Sunday, after the duel between Mouth and Workshops. The classification of the blue and gold team in an incredible penalty shootout was overshadowed by the embarrassment that was experienced inside the Mendoza World Cup stadium. And it had Andrés Fassi and Andrés Merlos as protagonists.

The Talleres boss opened fire in front of the television cameras. “I asked him why he continued to harm Talleres, because it is not the first time that this referee has done it, the situation of the goal is inexplicable,” Fassi shot in reference to Brian Aguirre’s goal, which occurred after the Xeneize striker recovered the ball out of bounds of the playing field.

“He started screaming and told me: ‘If you want to talk, I invite you to come.’ I told him: ‘With pleasure, of course I came to talk‘. And he got into his dressing room, He wanted to attack me but the linesmen stopped him“, continued the leader. “You can see that he let go of them, he came and attacked me. He hit me and he kicks the vice president, Hugo Gatti,” he added. And he concluded: “We are going to reach the final consequences. He is going to have a criminal complaint.” In that sense, as he was able to find out ClarionFassi has a group of legal advisors who could appear in the Córdoba Justice today.

Merlos remained silent until yesterday afternoon, when he spoke of DirecTV Sports Radio. Then, he declared: “Fassi says I hit him on the cheekbone; He was taken out and was hitting the police shield that was covering me because of his threats, because of his verbal insults, because of his impunity… “

With a sorry tone, the judge continued with his story: “He threatened, he said ‘We’re going to kill you, son of a bitch, you’re shitting us’. With a Mexican tone, it seemed like that. I told him to come to the locker room. The Police were there, who put up the shields. They came to the locker room and there they let me see the butt of a gun. I am a soldier and I know when I see a weapon. They let me see her and told me something that I felt was in a threatening tone. Fassi’s custodian told me: ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ and he shows me the butt.”

The referee said he felt that he was threatened with death. “This has to end, this man (Fassi) has to end. This is the second time I am going to report it. It has to end because something is going to happen, that’s what I I felt, that my life was in dangerI had a guy next to me who didn’t know who he was. “They have so much power, I don’t know where, that they do these things and, unfortunately, I feel that it will continue to happen, that they will continue doing it,” he noted.

Fassi had already been suspended for rebuking Merlos in July 2022, after Talleres’ defeat against Central Córdoba, when he sent off Christian Oliva at the request of the VAR. In November of last year, he also questioned the referee during a match with Vélez in Liniers. Then, his son Juan Pablo Fassi took aim at the president of the AFA. “How the Talleres present hurts Tapia and his henchmen, send whatever referee they want and keep trying to get us down. They won’t be able to, the T is much bigger”stated in X, Elon Musk’s social network.

Fassi believes there is animosity among the men led by Federico Beligoy due to his open enmity with Claudio Tapia. The owner of Talleres was a shareholder of Grupo Pachuca for 30 years, is in charge of the presidency of Juarez FC of Mexico and has business in Spain, where he traveled two months ago on behalf of the Mexican-American consortium MountainStar Sports Group to acquire the Español de Barcelona. Obviously, the Córdoba leader is in favor of Sports Joint Stock Companies and their landing in Argentine football, a situation that Javier Milei’s government is struggling with, which is causing great resistance in the AFA.

Maxi Levy, president of Almirante Brown and kidney man of Chiquipublished on social networks: “Soldier of Merlos from here until the end of my life”. Quite a message against Fassi.

From the Argentine Association of Referees led by Beligoy (yes, the same one who is also the head of the referees in AFA), a statement was issued in which “repudiates and rejects the events that occurred in the mixed locker room area allegedly with those close to the Talleres club”. He names the four referees, Merlos himself, the assistants Diego Bonfa and Pablo Gualtieri, and the fourth man, Felipe Viola. The Union of Sports Referees of Argentina, whose union secretary is Sergio Pezzotta, expressed the same sentiment. And it had a repost from Pablo Toviggino, executive secretary of the AFA.

The lines did not have a happy night either. Bonfa should have done something more in Aguirre’s play, although he may argue that he was in the opposite sector. Gualtieri took advantage of a non-existent offside from Zeballos in the second half. After raising the flag, Jabes Saralegui was one-on-one with Guido Herrera and scored the goal.

The truth is that Merlos made an ugly mistake and favored Boca, just when so many comments had been made from La Bombonera following his appointment. Photos of the referee with a flag and shorts with the River shield have been circulating for some time. The judge born 43 years ago in San Rafael said that it was a fake image.

His worst moment came a decade ago, when he made a mistake, allowed one more minute of added time to play and Lanús beat Arsenal 3-2. The death of Julio Grondona was still fresh. He spent 148 days without directing. It was only in 2019, when he resigned from SADRA that the time he did everything possible to get him back to work, did Beligoy give him a boost. He soon received the badge of international referee. Since then, he began to officiate high-profile matches. Last year, they even nominated him for the Superclásico. And he was more exposed, of course.

What will happen if Merlos’ aggression is proven? Article 265 stipulates the expulsion of the referee who ““injures, offends, provokes or seriously offends or attacks an official of the AFA or an affiliated club, due to the exercise of his or her position.”

On the other hand, article 266 indicates: “Suspension of three months to five years, depending on the seriousness of the offense, to anyone who in any way offends the AFA, its leader or affiliated club, insults, provokes, offends, attacks or attempts to attack leaders of the AFA or affiliated club for acts related to their function and provided that the facts are less serious than those specified in the preceding article.”