Guruceta: Legend and Controversy

Born in San Sebastian on 4 November 1941, Emilio Carlos Guruceta Muro, had a brilliant career in refereeing. At 25 he refereed in the third division and three years later debuted in the first division. On 25 February 1987, while driving to Pamplona to referee the Copa del Rey match Osasuna – Real Madrid, he suffered an accident in Fraga, province of Huesca, in which Guruceta and one of his assistants, Vidal Torres, lost their lives.

Guruceta was the first modern referee of Spain, with a great physical form and being able to communicate naturally with the players. His name remained in history for his great refereeing career and the trophy for the best referee of each season bears his last name. However, he is also remembered for a controversial decision. "At that time, there was no communication system and we used to communicate with Guruceta using passwords, which were very effective, but with that mess at the Nou Camp it was impossible to warn him that Rife's foul on Velázquez had been outside the penalty area," says Luis Olasagasti, the assistant referee that ran the line in the Cup match Barcelona – Real Madrid, which took place on 6 June 1970. “The game was going well, although the atmosphere on the field was very loaded, with great anxiety after Barcelona scored a goal and approached to equalize the tie. It was a Cup match and in the first leg Madrid had won 2-0. The other AR was Eusebio Nieva. We were very close and everything seemed to be controlled, but that play came and there was no way to tell Emilio what happened. Anyway, I don't know if he would have listened to me because, if he saw it clearly, his decision used to be final”, says Olasagasti. That night was long for Guruceta and his assistants, who ended up at the police station. “We were very reassured to be accompanied by González Echeverría, the president of the Gipuzkoan referees. We acted in good faith and did not understand why a referee decision was a matter of police station”. The journalist Gorka Reizabal, who was a referee and acted as an assistant referee three times with the famous Guruceta, described his character: “Guruceta was very chatty, very nice, but on the field he imposed discipline with his presence. He entered refereeing as a cyclone, climbed from Third to First Division in three seasons and, at 28, was already among the best. His slender appearance and physical form contrasted with many of the other members who looked like older gentlemen. He was the first athlete referee, the first shining referee. He was launched by González Echeverría, who was perhaps portrayed in him, and he stood out very soon”. 

Guruceta was already famous before the Nou Camp incident. Reizabal himself commented years ago in an article that the referee created controversy even with his wedding, a photographic exclusive that he sold to the magazine 'Hello!' for half a million pesetas. Since that incident, Guruceta refused to referee Barcelona year after year and that challenged him until 1985. "They used me politically. I know from a minister that my case was at a ministerial table. It was about satisfying Catalonia, and they got me dumb", Guruceta said in 1980. He was suspended for six months. "It was an incomprehensible sanction, he was accused of provoking a public order conflict. How can that be caused by calling a fault inside or outside the penalty area?", comments 'Pato' Reizabal. After six months of suspension, Guruceta continued his career. He was an international referee, with matches at the Olympic Games in Montreal and Moscow, but again ran into the scandal over an accusation of bribery by Anderlecht in a match with Nottingham. Of course, nothing was comparable to that night of 6 June 1970 at the Nou Camp to which we return in memory. The beginning of a beautiful chronicle of Manuel Vazquez Montalban described what happened after the penalty: «Guruceta extends his arm and runs towards the penalty spot. A broken scream is born in the throat of the spectators, the pads already look like poppies among the green wheat fields. Barcelona players start a withdrawal movement towards the locker room. Night poppies continue to sprout on the grass. The rain of pads is awesome. Twenty, thirty thousand pads fill the night with strange colorations, and behind the pads the first spectators arise. They do not jump to attack the referee. They jump to tell the players to leave. Guruceta starts to get restless. No one touches him, not even a hair all night... but someone advises 'because we love you'. And Guruceta left. 

Source: El Diario Vasco