José Aparecido de Oliveira, 71, an outstanding referee in Brazilian football between the 1980s and 1990s, has died. wake and burial, in Santo André, but did not disclose the cause.
Born in Taquaritinga, the São Paulo native became a member of the board of Fifa (International Football Federation). He refereed games of the Copa Libertadores of America and World Cup Qualifiers.
Aparecido was even marked, however, by two classics between Corinthians and Palmeiras. The first of them was held in 1991, with alviverde winning by 2 to 1. Expelled, alvinegro Neto spat in his face. Years later, in a reunion, he apologized.
The episode was recalled this Tuesday by Neto himself, now presenter of Band, on the program “Os Donos da Bola”. “I was a coward, a bum and a racist. May all those who were racist today be anti-racists. All the best to the family,” he said.
Apologies were accepted by José Aparecido. For him, the Corinthians player had shown “the greatness and humility of recognizing that he was wrong”. The former referee also praised his work as a commentator.
In 1993, Neto was on the field in another game refereed by the judge from Taquaritinga. It was the final of the 1993 Paulista Championship, still celebrated by people from Palmeiras and lamented by Corinthians fans.
Still in the first half, the referee did not expel Edmundo, from Palmeiras, for a flying kick on Paulo Sérgio. He, who had already shown a red card to Henrique, from Corinthians, for having stopped the counterattack with a foul on Edílson, preferred to show only the yellow to the attacker.
The alviverde formation, which was already winning by 1 to 0, scored two more goals until the end of the 90 minutes. In overtime, he scored another. The black and white team ended the classic with eight players – Ronaldo and Ezequiel were also expelled. The green and white, with ten – Tonhão took red.
In an interview with UOL in 2016, José Aparecido acknowledged that Edmundo could not have stayed on the field. “Probably, I could have sent off if I had seen the foul from another angle, if I had been at the angle that allowed me to see Edmundo’s expression…”
He reported having suffered several threats after that match and had to leave the city of São Paulo for a while. In recent years, he had been working as an auditor at the TJD (São Paulo Sports Court) of the FPF (Paulista Football Federation).
“One thing that propelled my career forward was that I was never afraid of anything.”
