Esquinas Torres, the referee who stopped Eto'o: "I should have gone with him, we wouldn't be like this"

“You're going to ask me about Eto'o, right?” asks the former referee Víctor Esquinas Torres, who led matches in the League, the Champions League or UEFA between 1991 and 2006, but who is remembered for a moment. February 25, 2006. the Romareda. Zaragoza faces Barcelona and the visiting team's star, Samuel Eto'o, threatens to leave due to the racist chants he receives. Between the referee, Esquinas Torres, and the Barça coach, then Frank Rijkaard, they stop him, but the insults continue. They continue that day there, they continued other days in other stadiums and so on until Sunday in Mestalla with Vinicius as the victim. «The problem always reappears and the media remember me. I'm delighted, but…. Is it going to be solved this time? I don't think so, “says the former referee, who at 62 continues to work at Renfe as director of Human Resources.

Why is it so difficult to end racism in stadiums? Because the Law does not work. The protocol that has been in place in Spain since 2007 says that, in the face of racist insults, the referee must ask for a few messages over the public address system, then put the teams in the locker room for a while and finally, exhausted all possibilities, suspend the match. In practice, the first step is never passed. Why? Because the referee who does so will be sanctioned, and all the authorities seem to be aware of the problem of racism. Wouldn’t that referee receive support? I don’t think so. With the current protocol, his career would be at stake. Now everyone is making statements, communiqués and tweets, but the current protocol is signed by the Federation, the League clubs and the AFE so that a match is never suspended. To keep the ball rolling. In Spain only the match has been suspended, when in Vallecas they called Zozulia a Nazi, and it was suspended by the players, not the referee. Did you think about suspending in Zaragoza in 2006 in the face of Eto’o’s protests? I thought about following the protocol. In fact, the first thing I told Samuel was that there was a new protocol, that we had to give him a chance. And he said to me: What a chance, if a thousand guys are insulting me! He was right.. The messages over the public address system do not work and it is impossible to identify 1,000 fans. It was my last year as a referee, I should have left that day. How did you convince Eto’o? Rijkaard, who was his coach, did it. He told him he had to hold on, that the league was at stake. It was 0-0. The situation was softened later because Barça took a corner kick, someone touched it with his hands and Ronaldinho scored from the penalty. The Zaragoza fans lowered their spirits. But, well, the insults to Eto’o continued until the end. What did the Federation say to you about your management of that moment, it didn’t like it at all. The Federation at the time proclaimed that there was no problem of racism in Spanish soccer. And we were coming from that friendly match with England at the Bernabeu.. On Eto'o's day I remember that the figure from Zaragoza, Emerton, came and told me that he was also leaving the field. That he had played all over Europe and had never lived the same as in Spain. But nothing, here we continue to dodge the bulge. Did you experience more cases of racism besides that one? Yes, several. And not only in Spain. There are countries that have taken measures and others that have the same problem. The previous season I had to stop a match between Legia Warsaw and Hertha Berlin because of the same racist sounds. Taking advantage of the moment let me ask about the 'Negreira Case'. Did you receive any kind of pressure from Negreira to benefit Barcelona? I don't want to comment on the Negreira case because at that stage I was already international. He told me how I was classified and how I was already international, the conversation did not last long. I don't know what he told others. What I can say is that I was never aware that this man could be hired by Barcelona. Referees back then earned much less than now. We were not professionals and that is why not having a well-paid job was highly frowned upon.. Sánchez Arminio [former president of the Technical Committee of Referees], may he rest in peace, always did a lot of cleaning up in that sense. When a referee had economic problems, it was normal for him not to continue. I, who have a degree in Law, was already working in Renfe, Ansuátegui Roca was a doctor, Fernández Marin was a psychologist and so on.