Referee infamous with São Paulo to oversee Coritiba clash in Brasileirão | OneFootball

With their minds on the classic match against Palmeiras this Sunday (3/1), in the Paulistão semifinal, São Paulo needs to shift its focus to the Brasileirão, as midweek they will visit Coritiba for the 4th round of the national competition.

And on the afternoon of this Monday (23), the CBF announced at its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro (RJ) the referee for the match. The one who will take charge of the whistle in Tricolor’s away game is the controversial referee from Goiás, Wilton Pereira Sampaio. The assistants on the field and in the VAR booth will be announced by the organization soon.

As is customarily reported by the CBF, the selection of referees is made taking into account the stages of the competition, the importance and complexity of each match, as well as the qualification, physical conditioning, and technical performance of the referees.

Wilton has already refereed a Tricolor match this season, precisely in their Brasileirão debut, in the 2-1 victory over Flamengo. This time, it was the Rio team that complained, about an alleged unfounded penalty on Arrascaeta, which was correctly not awarded.

SHOW OF ERRORS AGAINST TRICOLOR

However, in Tricolor matches, he has a terrible track record. Let’s recall a few. The most recent was in September 2025, in the 1-0 win over Botafogo in the Brasileirão, where the referee infuriated the fans by not calling a foul for a nasty stomp on defender Sabino’s stomach.

In the second half of the match, right-back Vitinho from the Rio team challenged Sabino for the ball and ended up stepping on the São Paulo player. Referee Wilton Pereira called nothing, considering it an accidental play. Not even the VAR booth called for a review, which was seen as a major error by former referee and now commentator PC Oliveira, who stated that Tricolor was indeed harmed at home against Botafogo.

Previously, he made a mistake even recognized by the CBF, in a classic against Santos in the Brasileirão, where Sampaio did not award a penalty to Tricolor in a clear play where Alves was brought down in the box.

“The technical opinion of the International Committee is that there was a penalty in the cited play. The Santos goalkeeper hits the opponent’s leg before touching the ball. From the referee’s angle, and considering that the goalkeeper ends up with possession of the ball, it is very difficult to have the necessary certainty to award the maximum penalty. The foul is only clear from the camera angle behind the goal,” said the CBF committee.

The report also points out the need for a yellow card for the Santos goalkeeper for the penalty committed.

“Disciplinarily, the play calls for a yellow card because, despite denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, the foul was committed in the context of a challenge for the ball and, therefore, the sanction is reduced from a red card to a yellow card,” evaluated the Commission.

IT GOES WAY BACK…

Back in the 2024 Brasileirão, the referee from Goiás was involved in Tricolor matches with controversies, against Palmeiras, Juventude, Vitória, and Cruzeiro. Despite the complaints, the team did not lose any of these matches, drawing with the first two and winning against the teams from Bahia and Minas Gerais.

In all four appearances, however, there were controversial incidents complained about by São Paulo. In the classic, he was criticized for the excessive number of fouls called in the Choque-Rei. Against Juventude, the criticism came from number 10, Luciano himself.

“Wilton (Pereira Sampaio) is always like this, every time he referees one of my games, he gives me a yellow card,” said the striker after the goalless draw with the team from Rio Grande do Sul. According to Luciano, he was talking to Zubeldía and the referee gave him a yellow for complaining.

Against Vitória, at Morumbi, more controversies. This time, the Tricolor fans were furious about an offside call on a Calleri goal that was considered doubtful. And also for a penalty awarded to the team from Bahia.

To wrap up the series, Wilton Pereira did not award a penalty after the ball hit Cruzeiro’s Marlon’s hand inside the box. He spent more than three minutes talking with the VAR team, but decided not to call the infraction.

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