How River and Belgrano got on with Falcón Pérez: stats, history, rows | OneFootball

This Sunday, starting at 3:30 p.m., River and Belgrano will face off at the Mario Alberto Kempes for the Torneo Apertura final. Ahead of this match, the Argentine Football Association appointed Yael Falcón Pérez to officiate, with Leandro Rey Hilfer on VAR duty. River is the team he has refereed the most, with a total of 22 matches, while he has officiated Belgrano on nine occasions. He has also been in charge of two matches between the sides, with one win apiece, and he has some very memorable controversies to his name.

The first River match officiated by Yael Falcón Pérez was on October 9, 2021, against Banfield, in that year’s Liga Profesional, which was won by the team then managed by Marcelo Gallardo. With a Gustavo Canto own goal, River won 1-0 at the Florencio Solá.

Since then, the 38-year-old from Buenos Aires Province has refereed another 21 matches, with a record of nine wins, seven draws (although one ended in a penalty shootout loss to Platense), and six defeats. In total, the Núñez side picked up 34 of the 66 points at stake, a 51.52% success rate. As for disciplinary decisions, Falcón Pérez awarded River four penalties, and showed 59 yellow cards and two red cards to River players.

Beyond having officiated two Superclásicos (the 1-1 draw in the regular phase of the 2024 Copa de la Liga and Boca’s 3-2 win in that tournament’s quarterfinals), the most remembered match he refereed involving River was the already mentioned one against Platense in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Torneo Apertura. Although Vicente López’s side spent the whole match complaining that the famous “little calls” were going in favor of the home team, what happened at the end of the game was what really sparked the protests: a possible red card, a wrongly awarded throw-in, a dubious penalty in the final play, and three minutes of stoppage time that enraged the visiting bench. As a sign of protest, Ignacio Vázquez ignored the referee during the coin toss for the penalty shootout.

Belgrano, on the other hand, has been officiated by him nine times: twice when the club was in Primera Nacional, once in the Copa Argentina, and the other six in the top flight. The record is three wins and six losses, meaning 33% of the points won. He showed 30 yellow cards to Belgrano players, no red cards, and did not award them any penalties (though he did award two against them).

Just like with River, Falcón Pérez also has a controversial match on his record involving Belgrano. It was on October 24 last year, in the Copa Argentina semifinal against Argentinos Juniors in Rosario. That match, which the Córdoba side had started by winning thanks to a brilliant goal from Lucas Zelarayán, was decided by a controversial penalty awarded to Argentinos. Gerónimo Heredia slightly held Alan Lescano, who went down easily, and then Tomás Molina converted from the spot to send Nico Diez’s side through.

“The penalty is a disgrace. How many times are they going to screw us over? I try not to talk about referees—I haven’t talked about referees for ten years, because if I don’t speak when they benefit me, I’m not going to speak when they harm me either. But there comes a point when you’ve had enough. Are they going to do something or is this going to keep going like this?” Ricardo Zielinski said in the post-match press conference. He added: “The very least we want is someone who is somewhat committed to making the game even. Not someone who controls the match for you, because he controlled everything, everything.”

Falcón Pérez has already officiated two matches between River and Belgrano. The first, played in Córdoba a few months after Belgrano’s return to the top flight, ended in a 2-1 win for the home side thanks to a brace from Pablo Vegetti.

The second, on the other hand, was a rout for Eduardo Coudet’s team. On April 5 of this year, River cruised to a 3-0 win with a brace from Tomás Galván and a goal from Facundo Colidio, in one of the team’s best performances with Chacho on the bench.

This Sunday, the balance will tip one way or the other, and Yael Falcón Pérez will be under the microscope after recent controversies involving both teams and the general mistrust with which Argentine refereeing is currently being viewed.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.