Real Madrid-Valencia referee ‘put in the fridge’ as punishment for added time error

The Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) in Spain have punished Gil Manzano and he will not participate in LaLiga’s match day 29 fixtures. The referee from Extremadura has been, as they say in Spanish, ‘put in the fridge’ after the mistake he made at the end of the Valencia-Real Madrid game two weeks ago.

Although, from the Committee’s point of view, Gil Manzano had performed well in a tense game, he did make a mistake in the last action of the game by blowing for full-time at the wrong moment. The 40-year-old whistled just as Los Blancos were finishing their attacking phase and Bellingham scored a goal at the end of the move - a split-second after the final whistle had controversially already been blown.

Spanish football has seen the same mistake before

It was to be expected that Gil Manzano would end up ‘in the fridge’ as last season, Ortiz Arias made the same mistake, blowing the whistle at the end of the first half in the Valladolid-Sevilla game when Sergio Escudero had shot from the edge of the area: the ball ended up going into the net but the goal did not stand.

On that occasion, the goal was not given as the whistle went before the ball crossed the goal line. The official from Madrid did not referee for three match days because of this mistake. Now it remains to be seen how long Gil Manzano will be away from the field of play, as his error was very similar.

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Why was Jude Bellingham’s goal against Valencia ruled out?

The referee allowed Real Madrid to take a corner, warning the players that it would be the last action of the game for both teams. Modric put it in before was cleared to the edge of the area where Brahim took possession and Diego López tried to tackle him. Gil Manzano should have made the decision to either whistle for the end or let the attacking phase come to a conclusion, but he did neither.

Brahim broke down the wing and lofted the ball into the heart of the box, at which point Gil Manzano blew his whistle as Bellingham headed past Mamardashvili. But the final whistle was blown a split-second before the goal, so it was not added to the scoreboard, provoking a strong reaction from the Real Madrid players.

This mismanagement of time has led to Gil Manzano’s punishment and tarnished the otherwise good decisions made during a difficult match. The Committee was happy with his performance across the rest of the controversial moments that occured. He was right to revoke his initial decision, for example, with the help of the VAR, to signal a penalty for a move involving Hugo Duro.

But the final error had much more weight to it. Gil Manzano will be off the list this week, but is expected to return soon. He is one of the best Spanish referees and the main candidate to represent the country at the upcoming Euros.