Victoriano Sánchez Arminio, president of the arbitrators at the time of the Negreira case, dies

Victoriano Sánchez Arminio (Santander, 1942), former Spanish collegiate and president of the Technical Committee of Referees between 1993 and 2018, a time that is now being investigated in the 'Negreira case', has died at the age of 80 after suffering from lung cancer.

Sánchez Arminio refereed in the First Division for 13 years since his debut in the 1976/77 season, he directed 149 games, whistled three Copa del Rey finals and since 1978 he was an international referee, participating as an assistant in the 1982 World Cup in Spain and as the main referee. in the World Cup in Mexico 1986. In addition, in 1984 he participated in the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

After his retirement from professional arbitration in 1989, Sánchez Arminio was appointed president of the Technical Committee of Referees in 1993, a job he carried out until 2018.

“For us it is a tremendous shock, we did not expect it, he was very loved by all. He was a man with a lot of character but he took care of us like a father, he guided us, he scolded us, but a person from the environment, I don't know what else can happen to us this year. A person who has helped us a lot to get where we are, rest in peace, a hug and a kiss to the whole family,” said Luis Medina Cantalejo, current president of the CTA, in Carrusel Deportivo.

The figure of Sánchez Arminio has been a key figure in Spanish arbitration for the last three decades, always at the hands of Ángel María Villar, former president of the Federation, as his superior, and José María Enríquez Negreira, his vice president of the CTA throughout the stage that Sánchez Arminio was in office.

And along with them, Sánchez Arminio has been involved in several of the most important scandals that have occurred in arbitration and the Spanish Federation in recent years, with the 'Soule case' and the 'Negreira case' as the focus of the research.

In March of this year, the National Court ordered Sánchez Arminio to be charged, as the former head of the CTA, for the alleged diversion of 7.9 million euros within the 'Soule case', a process that a few days ago the lawyers of Arminio asked for the filing for him.

After the 'Soule case' came the 'Negreira case', still under investigation. A scandal that has the former number 2 of the referees in the center of the target but that has again questioned the honor of some managers of the group, something that weighed on Sánchez Arminio. A few weeks ago, Medina Cantalejo assured that he was “putting his hand on fire” for him and that the former president of the CTA “is having a bad time and I think it has nothing to do with it.. Only Enríquez, his son and Barcelona are the ones who have to explain themselves. We are here to clear our name.”