As Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo battles his own spate of homophobic attacks, Spain's first openly gay referee, Jesús Tomillero, has opened up about his experiences working in a machismo sport.

Jesús Tomillero

On March 26th, 21-year-old referee Jesús Tomillero was overseeing a football game between teenager clubs in La Línea de la Concepción, Andalucia.

“The game was going on normally,” Jesús Tomillero told online newspaper El Español on Monday, “until the kit man of the local team got angry about an offside offence and began to protest from the sidelines, without stopping.

After Tomillero repeatedly asked the man to settle down, and he would not stop, the referee told the man he would have to throw him out. That’s when the man barked back with slurs.

“You’re a cocksucker, and you like to take it in the ass, maricón[faggot],” the man shouted.

The comments struck a particular chord as Tomillero is the first and only Spanish referee to come out as gay.

Another official overseeing security refused to call the police about the altercation, saying that the referee “liked to ask for trouble” and others joked about calling the firefighters, The Local reports.

Yesterday we wrote about the homophobic slurs aimed towards Cristiano Ronaldo were during the minute’s silence in memory of Johan Cruyff.

The Director of the institute, Francisco Ramírez, released a statement condemning the insults and is deeply saddened by the regular occurrence during a majority of Barcelona FC games. “These deplorable and shameful acts are punishable, according to the Sports Law passed in 2007,” he said.

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