The referee of the Play-Off final between the Gymnastic of Tarragona and Málaga CFof June 22, 2024, Eder Mallohas finally declared before the Court within the framework of the investigation that initiated the Court of Instruction number 4 of Tarragona, as accused of sports corruption and documentary falsehood. The referee's statement as investigated has had to postpone up to two occasions: the first would have taken place at the beginning of this last March, and the second, at the end of April.
The explanations that the referee has given in the Court, according to several local media in Tarragona, have been for defend their arbitration in that party in which Málaga won his ascent to Second Division after 122 minutes that, for the Tarragonense team, were left in one of the worst pages of its history. The Nastic de Tarragona announced in December that he complained against Eder Mallo for a party full of controversy and after a private investigation that, they said, would demonstrate that The referee would have the Second Division promotion assured If I won the Malaga.
This Monday, Mallo has declared that during that June 2024 party he went “fear” from the invasion of field fans at the end of the party and that He came to “fear for his physical integrity”. The referee, who has declared by videoconference and has only answered the questions of the judge and those of his lawyer, has defended that his performance in the party It was “impartial”, Even if he has also recognized that “he could have made mistakes.”
In the minutes signed by the collegiate after the party, he assured that death threats had been received from the fans and that the intervention of the Mossos d'Esquadra had been required to protect the referee, something that the Catalan police denied in their police report. The attestation of the Mossos comes to specify that The physical integrity of the referees was not compromised “in any case” and that fans and collegiate would not have shared space.
Another revelation in Eder Mallo's statements, as the same media point out, is that he had met a few days before the party with the president of the Technical Referee Committee (CTA) Luis Medina Cantalejoto talk about party technical issues. There is the circumstance that the president of the CTA himself is responsible for promoting the referees, as happened with Mallo a week later of the match between Nàstic and Malaga, which is now in the Second Division. The accusation of the Tarraconense club has already presented an appeal to the judge's decision not to call Medina Cantalejo as a witness.
