Football
Tom Marshall, Mexico correspondent 6y

Sanchez's 1993 America-Monterrey match-fixing claims 'stupid' - referee

Hugo Sanchez's assertions that a Club America-Monterrey semifinal second leg in Mexico's first division in 1993 was fixed have been denied by the referee in question.

Mexico legend Sanchez was asked on ESPN's Futbol Picante on Tuesday whether he had been involved in a fixed match in his own career and the former Real Madrid striker didn't hesitate in replying in the affirmative.

"Yes, and shall I tell you which? I played for America and we played against Monterrey and they [the Mexican federation] brought in a referee from Costa Rica so we'd go out," Sanchez said.

"They brought in a referee from abroad for the first time in history and I'd never lived through something like that.

"I said, 'I'm leaving this team and this place because it's embarrassing.'"

Three Club America goals were disallowed in the game, which Monterrey won 1-0, but Costa Rican referee Berny Ulloa -- brought in because of controversy in the first leg -- said the decisions were made by his Mexican assistants and slammed Sanchez's comments.

Uloa has said he is preparing a lawsuit against Sanchez.

"All the things that Hugo Sanchez is saying are stupid," Ulloa told Costa Rica's Teletica Radio.

"In the fourth or fifth minute I could have sent off Hugo Sanchez for a violent challenge against an opponent ... if these games were fixed, logically he would've been off."

Ulloa added that it was "not correct to offend the honor of a referee 25 years on."

The debate was sparked after Queretaro's sporting director Joaquin Beltran bitterly complained about a number of recent refereeing decisions that had gone against his team of late, including three penalties being awarded to Cruz Azul in Tuesday's 2-1 Liga MX victory over Gallos Blancos.

Beltran called the decisions "lamentable, unheard of, a theft" and added that it wasn't the first time this season his team had been hard done by.

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