Press release by the Athletic Club Supporters’ Club Association

Foul play against Athletic.

The Athletic Club Supporters’ Club Association would like to come forward in response to the miserable campaign carried out by certain people associated with football, in which, once more, Athletic are accused of receiving partial treatment from the referees for the mere fact that current R.F.E.F. President, Ángel María Villar was an active member of this Club.

We consider this a dirty war campaign, stirred up by the cowardly and unfair declarations made by Quique Sánchez Flores (shall we take a look at Mejuto’s match statistics?), the only objective of which is to make Athletic look suspicious and to condition the referees in the decisive home stretch of the Championship. What we’re definitely dealing with is an attempt to influence the referees to question themselves as to whether a decision may be interpreted as partial treatment towards the Red-White club.

In this case, it is extremely pathetic to talk about Betis Director, Gregorio Conejo, and Levante coaches, Abel Resinos and Juan Sabas, with regards to the selective memory and opportunistic attitude which they pride themselves on. The Green-White director was unscrupulous when denouncing the alleged favouritism of the referees towards Athletic, despite admitting that he had not seen last Saturday’s match. What a nerve! Mister Conejo forgot to mention the fact that Betis had clearly benefited from the errors made by Daudén Ibáñez during their last visit to San Mamés in which three obvious penalty kicks were not awarded to the team from Bilbao. And he also forgot about Mr Lopera’s despicable and beneficial campaign to condition the referee during the Copa semi-final played between the two teams three seasons ago.

Moreover, we should mention the terribly fragile memory of the Levante coaches, whose partial amnesia stops them from remembering the two penalties (against Javi Martínez and Amorebieta) which were not called by Medina Cantalejo in their clash against the Red-Whites in Valencia City. So much so that the local defender Manolo, in an honest gesture, had no qualms about telling the referee that he had committed an « obvious penalty». We are not making it up, this information can be found in the newspapers. What’s more, Abel Resinos did not complain about the referee on that day, just like he didn’t complain about the referee when his team won at the Bernabeu. Do you remember that match?

We are aware that if you tell a lie a thousand times, you may end up believing it. However, in this case, we believe that reality is quite eloquent. In the almost 20 years that Ángel María Villar has been in charge of the R.F.E.F, Athletic Club has not won any titles nor reached any finals. We are certain that our club does not any receive partial treatment from the referees and that the exact opposite is happening, probably because of the influence of this deceiving campaign.

Meanwhile, our player Carlos Gurpeqi is facing the toughest sanction that has ever been imposed on a European footballer, after having gone through a process plagued with irregularities characteristic of a Banana Republic; Athletic have had the leadership taken away from them in the female Superliga competition as a result of an incomprehensible ruling made by the CEDD which goes against the regulations and its own existing jurisprudence and the respective appeals lodged by our Board of directors to the different Appeals Committees are systematically rejected. Is this what you call partial treatment?

Finally, we’d like to express our apprehension with regards to the way things have been handled by some members of the mass media, who seem to be determined to add fuel to the flame with regards to this affair, by manipulating certain information and adding to the unjustified accusations of those who would like to see Athletic down. Therefore, we implore the media to be more objective and responsible, at the same time we are at the media’s disposal to clear up this controversial issue with solid arguments on the table.

Athletic Club Supporters’ Club Association