Turbulent Colombian football: complaints of fixing, violence and refereeing failures

Colombian football is going through a turbulent time, due to several controversies that have shaken the professional championship in recent days: there is alarm over possible illegal bets reported by a manager, there are threats to footballers, there have been angry protests by fans ranging from burning at the Atanasio Girardot even insults the National coach, John Bodmerand, as if that were not enough, arbitration failures persist.

The League, which advances in its seventh day, is shaken. Last Friday, the president of Patriotas, César Guzmán, revealed that “four or five” players from his team were summoned to Dimayor after being contacted by illegal bettors. The complaint put the championship on alert. Fernando Jaramillo, president of Dimayor, said last year that there is “an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office to help us from the point of view of the investigation and to be able to make decisions that avoid this type of behavior.” The Football Players Association (Acolfutpro) has reported since 2023 that these cases have been recorded especially in B.

These complaints coincided with recent episodes of bad behavior by fans, such as some from Nacional who burned chairs in the south stand of the Atanasio Girardot in the defeat against Millonarios. Due to these events, the Disciplinary Commission did not sanction the club, but the mayor's office closed the gallery for two dates.

The other delicate case was that of the fan who broke into the press room of the Palmaseca stadium last Friday after the Antioquia team lost against Cali, to attack the purslane coach with expletives Bodmer. To make matters worse, the Medellín player, the Uruguayan Jose Ajahad to be separated from the team's squad for its last game against Fortaleza for receiving “harassment messages.”

And as if all this were not enough, to date the teams continue to complain about refereeing controversies and failures in the intervention of the VAR. One of the recent controversies was the criticism of Wilmar Roldanthe best referee in the country, for not sending off Alianza goalkeeper Jaime Mora who injured Gonzalo Lencina, from Pereira.

Storm in the League

Such chaos in Colombian football has raised concerns among the clubs themselves. Daniel Ossa, president of Medellín, gave his opinion on this whole panorama.

“I think that if the dark brown issue is going over with the fans and legitimizing the protests… Today the fans go to the headquarters, to the office, they pick you up at an airport. You have to put up with a lot of things. The Atanasio thing is very difficult, the policy was passed to us from 9 million to 24, after the latest outrages the policy was worth 174 million pesos. And the Dimayor and the mayors always go against the clubs, not the individuals. Our position with Nacional is that they do not sanction it, that they individualize…,” Ossa said.

Regarding the threats to Aja, he commented: “We are investigating it. He feels complex harassment and his family, but he has been on social networks… he feels overwhelmed, besieged.” Finally, he concluded: “With the issue of arbitration and fixing, we must be cautious and respectful, we must give our opinion with arguments and evidence.”

For its part, Tulio Gomez, the largest shareholder of América, commented: “Unfortunately there are some journalists who incite the fans, who spend their time mistreating the soccer directors, especially those from the Valley. Regarding betting, we have not perceived that in our games. And on the refereeing issue we have seen that there are some errors in the VAR.”

Gómez exploded because of the refereeing decisions that, he believes, affected him in the 1-1 draw against Envigado. “These gentlemen cannot whistle at us again. “They don’t give us guarantees,” he said.

At Atlético Nacional, one of the teams that has recently been a victim of fan attacks, they stated:

“On the arbitration issue, it has been going on for many years; arbitration in Colombia is not progressing, it leaves more and more doubts, we have a tool that should be useful, but it is not, it does not have all the technology to make it more efficient, they are very slow to make decisions and the most serious thing is that after of the VAR are wrong. As long as refereeing is not professionalized, we are going to have the same problems,” they said from the club.

And they added: “The issue of betting, as long as there are no investigations with specific cases, we are not going to move on from eternal investigations that lead to nothing. On the issue of the fans, it is regrettable that they act like this, not only in the round of press but in the stadium, the threats to the Medellín player. It is a legal issue for the Prosecutor's Office and the police.”

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