On the iceberg of Colombian soccer this semester, must appear the controversial arbitration of Juan Pablo Alba in the goalless match between Equidad and Unión Magdalena. The striking thing about that match was that the Caldas referee sent off five players, and of course, everyone exploded in the press conference criticizing him.
This became bigger issues and more were spread details of Juan Pablo Alba. There was a powerful piece of information that caused a great scandal in national football: he was none other than the lawyer for Imer Machado, former referee and current director of the Arbitration Commission; In addition, it was stated that he had been the godson of Álvaro González Alzate, one of the most powerful men in soccer matters.
Mr. Juan Pablo Alba, imer Machado’s personal lawyer and Álvaro González’s godson is a disaster… it has no game control, it may be that one of the protests had the cause for expulsion, this is caused by errors of interpretation and good administration. pic.twitter.com/SW5EnIeyTx
— Wilmer Barahona H. (@ArbitrajeFrente) March 19, 2023
Read also: Dimayor ‘backed down’ and changed sanctions to Nacional and Once Caldas due to riots
Will he return to the scene?
That Equidad-Unión Magdalena match was already a while ago, exactly on Saturday March 18.Since then, the referee did not have continuity in another match at the professional soccer level.
It turns out that, to everyone’s surprise, Alba’s name was included in the referee’s appointments for Matchday 15 of the BetPlay Dimayor Tournament: will lead the match between Atlético F.C. and Boca Juniors from Cali.
It turns out that the man from Caldas will be the central referee of said match; For his part, the assistants will be Jefferson Arias (Quindío) and Juan Giraldo (Caldas). The work of fourth judge corresponds to Jefry Orejuela (Valle).
This match will be played on Tuesday, May 2 at 3:00 p.m. (local time) at the Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero.
It is striking that Alba returns to be the central judge, after the controversy and the links she has with the ‘hardcore’ FPC. What’s more, he would also provide his legal services to Nicolás Gallo, the judge who also belongs to the Caldas association (this according to information handled by the newspaper El Tiempo).
