Madrid - Spanish giants Real Madrid are reconsidering their plan to "buy" former referee Carlos Megia Davila, after running into a storm of criticism. On Tuesday sports daily Marca, which has close ties to Real, announced that Emilio Butragueno - former Real star and now the club9s "Director of Institutional Relations" - was planning to sign up Megia Davila as Real9s "Delegate for Referees".
Marca revealed that Megia Davila would be responsible for providing help and hospitality for referees and their assistants at Real9s home matches. Very few Spanish clubs have a person exclusively dedicated to taking care of referees.
Megia Davila, 43, was a controversial Spanish first division referee from 1996 to 2003.
Marca9s claims about him "signing" for Real have provoked such a barrage of criticism that, according to the website of AS on Wednesday afternoon, Real are reconsidering the plan, "in view of the polemics and the suspicion which have resulted."
AS claims that Real are concerned about the "interpretations and speculations concerning the possible influence" of Megia Davila, and that Butragueno has decided to put the plan "on hold" after a conversation on Wednesday morning with Jorge Valdano, the club9s director general.
On Wednesday there was a veritable storm of protest about Real9s plan.
Needless to say, the media in Catalonia have been suspicious about the plan, particularly television channel TV-3.
There has also been criticism in Madrid, especially on radio station Cadena SER and in AS.
Alfredo Relano, the influential editor of AS, wrote on Wednesday that "I am worried about the equivocal move that Madrid have made in signing a referee."
Relano added that AS had received "hundreds of comments" about the subject, some of them supporting Butragueno9s plan but most criticizing it.
In recent years Relano, together with Marca, has consistently claimed that Real have been prejudiced by referees because of an alleged anti-Real bias on the part of long-serving federation president Angel Maria Villar.
On the other hand, the media in Catalonia and in many Spanish regions have asserted for many years that Real often receive preferential treatment from referee - which Relano dismisses as "an old myth."
Also in AS on Wednesday, columnist Paco Gonzalez jokingly states that "more than one Catalan journalist will be quicker to make jokes about this (the Megia Davila plan) than (Usain) Bolt at the 100 metres."
Bolt - who established a new world record at the world athletics championships in Berlin in August - is a proud Real Madrid fan and was the guest of honour at their debut league defeat of Deportivo Coruna on August 29.
