The harassed referees were so afraid that they even distrusted when the Police arrived

The referees harassed last weekend during a second regional match in Gran Canaria were so impacted by the episode they had experienced and were "so afraid" that they even distrusted opening the door of the dressing room where they had taken refuge when the Police arrived.

In the incident, the coach of the visiting team, CD Arena Futboltec, Basilio Medina, mediated to protect the referees and try to calm the spirits of the Teldecosta players, who this Tuesday told EFE how everything happened.

The match, from group 2 of the Second Regional Men's League of Gran Canaria, was played last Friday at the El Goro football field, in the municipality of Telde. In the 77th minute, with 0-2 in favor of Medina's team, the main referee decided to stop the game after a Teldecosta player kicked a rival in the chest, details the visiting coach.

"The referee tries to take out a red card, but she turns to her right and observes that there is a scuffle next to her between players from Teldecosta and Arena Futboltec, which is where everything begins," recalls Basilio Medina.

In view of the situation, the referees make the decision to go to the locker room for five minutes and, after going back to the field, "they see that the scuffle continues its course", so they decide to suspend the match and lock themselves in the locker rooms.

Medina narrates that, immediately afterwards, several Teldecosta players "try to force the door" and try to open it with blows, while shouting insults such as "slut" or "whore": "It's nothing we're making up, it's reflected in the minutes," this witness remarks.

With his players already in the locker room and "feeling blows and insults that were escalating", Basilio Medina and the person in charge of equipment for his team, José Manuel Herrera, decided to approach the door of the referees' locker room to put themselves "at their disposal".

"The moment was very intense. Out of fear, they thought we were from the other team until I reiterated that we were the coaching staff of Arena Futboltec and that we had called the Police. Even so, they already had a stick behind the door and had managed to block access. Our only intention was that they would not be harmed," Medina summarizes.

The coach of CD Arena Futboltec affirms that he did not hear threats nor did he think about receiving any aggression towards him after coming to the rescue of the referees, because they were "focused on trying to protect them", although he appreciates that finally "nothing happened".

He comments that the referees "were so afraid" that they even distrusted the arrival of the Police, ten minutes after the start of the incident. In fact, they had to identify themselves so that the locker room door would open.

Basilio Medina relates that upon the arrival of the National Police at the football field there were no Teldecosta players left on the field or its surroundings. "The minutes reflect everything and no one has invented anything here," he emphasizes.

"It is a shame to be talking about an attempted aggression against three referees. It seems that it is the order of the day and that we assume it as normal, but it cannot be because there will come a day when everything will escalate. We cannot be week after week thinking that every time we go to play things like this are going to happen," laments the coach.

Medina hopes that the referees "are well", have the necessary motivation to direct their next match and "do not think about leaving football", while criticizing that the Technical Committee of Referees of Las Palmas "did not put any informant in the stands".