Bloody incident in the Spanish league: During a game, an assistant referee collided with a camera and had to be hospitalized.
Guadalupe Porras Ayuso probably imagined the end of her working day to be different: instead of walking after the final whistle, the referee had to leave the game between Real Betis and Athletic Bilbao yesterday, Sunday, bleeding on a stretcher.
What happened? Porras Ayuso was working as an assistant at the La Liga game and was watching Betis Sevilla score 1-0 when she collided with a TV camera and sustained a profusely bleeding wound on her head. After treatment, the 37-year-old even had to be taken off the pitch on a stretcher. She was replaced by the fourth official.
The referee committee warned about cameramen
For Porras Ayuso, however, the day continued in the hospital, where the wound was stitched and a severe facial trauma was diagnosed. However, she was then able to leave the clinic again.
The incident is likely to cause anger, especially because the referee committee had already warned the league in the past about cameramen who were too close to the sidelines. Guillermo Cuadra Fernández, referee of the game, said after the final whistle: “After the incident, I asked the cameraman to leave the area immediately as it was endangering the physical integrity of the participants, whereupon he initially withdrew and then with the management at half-time the La Liga spoke.”
Nevertheless, he later appeared in the area again. “On this occasion I noticed that this time the camera was disturbing the players and the fitness trainers who were doing warm-up exercises,” said the referee angrily. It is still unclear whether the league will react.