Emilio Carlos Guruceta Muro (4 November 1941 – 25 February 1987) was a Spanish football referee. He is remembered with the Guruceta Trophy, awarded to the best referee of the season in Spain. Guruceta died in a car crash, aged 45. After his death, it was revealed that he had been bribed by Belgian club

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

to fix their

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

semi-final against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

in 1984.

Career

1970 ''El Clásico''

Aged 28, Guruceta was chosen to referee the second leg of a

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

–

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

El Clásico El Clásico (in Spanish, also in lowercase letters; ) or El Clàssic (in Catalan, ), both meaning "The Classic", is the name given to any football match between rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions he ...

'' tie in the quarter-finals of the

Copa del Generalísimo The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanish f ...

, with the fixture holding significant weight as both teams were no longer in the running to win

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

. Real Madrid won the first leg 2–0 at home, and in the second leg at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

, Barcelona were winning 1–0 through

Carles Rexach Carles Rexach Cerdà (; born 13 January 1947) is a Spanish former football winger and manager. His career was mainly associated with Barcelona, spending 44 years at the club as a player (youth levels included) and coach. He formed a successful ...

. Around the hour mark, Guruceta awarded Real Madrid a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

for a foul by Joaquim Rifé on

Manuel Velázquez Manuel Velázquez Villaverde (24 January 1943 – 15 January 2016) was a Spanish footballer who played as a central midfielder. Club career Born in Madrid, Velázquez spent all of his 12 years in La Liga with Real Madrid. After three seasons o ...

. Footage is not conclusive on whether the event happened in the

penalty area The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends to each side of the goal and in front of it. If any part of the ball is ove ...

, or if it was a foul. After Real Madrid's equaliser, the Barcelona players walked off the pitch, but manager

Vic Buckingham Victor Frederick Buckingham (23 October 1915 – 26 January 1995) was an English football player and manager. He played for Second Division side Tottenham Hotspur. As manager he won the 1954 FA Cup final with West Bromwich Albion and finished ...

brought them back on in order to placate the crowd. With minutes of the game remaining, a pitch invasion led to Guruceta and his assistants being chased off the pitch and the game abandoned. Barcelona fans and members allege that Guruceta fixed the result for Real Madrid. His

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

ethnicity is sometimes cited as evidence of a cover-up, as it would be considered unlikely for a person from the region to favour a club from

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. He was suspended for six games over this match, though this was for not controlling the game, rather than for corruption. In his book on Spanish football ''Morbo'', British journalist Phil Ball says that it was more likely that Guruceta made a mistake under pressure. Guruceta aroused suspicion by buying a new BMW car and opening a sportswear business, though his actions were not unusual for someone from a middle-class background.

1979 UEFA Cup controversy

On 24 October 1979,

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

of Belgium hosted

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

of Italy in the second round of the

. Belgian newspaper ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, ) is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Émile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. Together with '' La Libre Belgique'', it is one of the most popular Francophone newsp ...

'' wrote that Napoli had been "decimated by a sham of a referee" in that game, having two players

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

and four more suspended with a

yellow card Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative co ...

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

backed the referee's decisions. Italian newspaper ''

Il Messaggero ''Il Messaggero'' (English: "The Messenger") is an Italian Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper based in Rome, Italy. It has been in circulation since 1878. It is one of the main national newspapers in Italy. History and profile ''Il Messaggero'' ...

'' alleged that the referee called Italians "just like the Spanish, all sons of bitches", an allegation he denied.

1984 UEFA Cup semi-final fix

In the semi-finals of the

1983–84 UEFA Cup The 1983–84 UEFA Cup was the 13th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The final was played over two legs at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brus ...

of England led

2–0 ahead of the second leg in Belgium. Forest manager

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

had not been supportive of Guruceta being assigned to the game, due to the Standard Liège and Napoli controversy in 1979. Anderlecht advanced to the final with a 3–0 win. The Belgian club were awarded a penalty when Forest's Kenny Swain was not near the player who went down, while

Paul Hart Paul Anthony Hart (born 4 May 1953) is an English football manager, coach, and former professional player who made 567 appearances in the Football League as a defender. Hart was most recently assistant manager to Nathan Jones at Charlton ...

headed an aggregate equaliser in added time, which was disallowed. In 1994, seven years after Guruceta's death, it was revealed that Anderlecht president Constant Vanden Stock had loaned him 1 million

Belgian franc The Belgian franc was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002 when the euro was introduced. It was subdivided into 100 subunits, each known as a in Dutch, or in French and German. History The ''gulden'' (guilder) of 20 ''st ...

s (£15,000), allegedly due to the referee's financial issues. The club employee who broke the story said he did so due to threats to his life, while the club said that the employee was blackmailing them. The employee had secretly recorded the club's discussion with Guruceta.

Death

Guruceta died in a car crash on 25 February 1987, in

Fraga Fraga (; ) is the major town of the ''comarca'' of Bajo Cinca () in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is located by the river Cinca. According to the 2014 census, the municipality has a population of 14,926 inhabitants. King Alfonso I ...

Province of Huesca Huesca (; ), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca. Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French departments of Haute-Garonne, Pyrénées- ...

. He was travelling to a Copa del Rey game between

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

and Real Madrid in

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

. One of his assistants, Eduardo Vidal, was also killed, while the other, Antonio Coves, was gravely injured. In ''Morbo'', Ball interviewed one of the linesmen from the 1970 ''Clásico''. Under the influence of alcohol, the assistant said "Le jodieron, ¿sabes? Y no hizo nada" (They screwed him, y'know, and he didn't do anything). The author was unsure whether this was a comment on Guruceta's reputation, or an allegation of assassination.

References

External links

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Emilio Guruceta
at Olympedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Guruceta, Emilio 1941 births 1987 deaths Sportspeople from San Sebastián Spanish football referees Road incident deaths in Spain Match fixers