It was in the 1959-60 season when Spanish Television began to offer reports on League matches, a summary of outstanding plays that was called, simply, First Division. TVE was barely tuned in in Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona and the program, with Centenario Terry cognac as a sponsor, was broadcast on Mondays starting at 10:30 p.m.
The Monday summary evolved and was renamed Graderío, then Yesterday Sunday and finally, in 1972, Estudio Estadio was born, with Pedro Ruiz as presenter. The big boost came a year later, when it incorporated a novelty that caused an impact: the moviola. It was a film editing device that allowed the image to be frozen, slowed down, moved forward and backward. All filmed at 25 frames per minute and in black and white. The moviola, a term that the Royal Academy did not adopt until 1984, was the first VAR in Spanish football, although it had no effect on the results of the matches. But it opened a new era of controversies available to all Spaniards.
To decide if the referee had got it right, Estudio Estadio brought in a former referee who had just hung up his whistle, José María Ortiz de Mendívil from Biscay. His fame was so great thanks to television that he ended up being called Don Moviolo. With a peculiar style (instead of identifying the footballers he preferred to talk about the striped player, the one in the dark shirt...) Ortiz de Mendívil had the complicated task of prosecuting former teammates from the comfort of an armchair and with the freedom of decision that so difficult it was to maintain on the playing fields of the League. He continued living in Bilbao and on Mondays he traveled to Madrid to discover uncalled penalties, offsides and other dubious actions. As a television analyst he earned twice as much as as a referee, although he preferred not to specify figures and used the proverb: “Money and holiness, half of half.” Curiously, when he was already starting his fourth season with the moviola they asked him:
— Can you imagine that the referees could see the play on a moviola, on the field, to decide?
— It doesn't seem possible to me, but it would be great because the referee's worst enemies are speed and location.
Ortiz de Mendívil, who died in 2015 at the age of 89, did not know the VAR. His refereeing era (from 1955 to 1973, international since 1957) was that of referees who combined Sunday matches with a profession (he was a medical representative). And his career was complex. He had enormous international prestige, but in Spain he used to have scandals when he refereed Madrid. From the Barça memory, unforgettable are his performances at the Bernabéu on the day of Bustillo's serious injury (1969) or that time he extended a classic (1966) with a goalless draw... until Madrid scored. He was a referee highly appreciated by the white club, for whom he whistled on 61 occasions (between League and Cup). There were only 28 in Barcelona, although it is true that the Barça club had him rejected several times, fed up with his apparent Real Madrid fandom. Already in the first Barça-Madrid match (1-0, 1956) in the Catalan press it was written that he "made a mistake when dressing, he should have worn white."
While playing for Madrid, he had problems against Espanyol, Granada, Valencia, Atlético, Elche... In another area, he was bitterly remembered in the Europa field, on a Cup day against Córdoba (1967). And in 1969 he even scored a goal, in a Zaragoza-Las Palmas match. The ball hit him in the back and ended up in the net.
However, when he whistled free of influences he displayed all his virtues. He directed the 1969 European Cup final, Milan-Ajax at the Bernabéu and they carried him out on their shoulders. He was in the 1970 World Cup and whistled a semi-final, the historic Brazil-Uruguay with Pelé's fabulous dribble over Mazurkiewicz. He directed one Euro Cup final, two Cup Winners' Cup finals, one Intercontinental Cup final and the Spanish Cup final twice (1970 and 1972). Outside Spain he enjoyed well-deserved prestige and at home he was Don Moviolo, the precursor of the VAR.
