BarcelonaThe arbiter from Lleida, Xavier Estrada Fernández, has brought the audio recordings of a seminar of the Technical Committee of Arbitrators (CTA) to the Social Court No. 32 in Madrid, where he, without mentioning him directly, like the President of the Panel, Luis Medina Cantalejo , feels , insults and threatens him. It is another example of the war between Estrada Fernández and the CTA, which opens a new chapter and leaves Medina Cantalejo in a very compromised position.
The trial to determine whether the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) violated Estrada’s fundamental rights took place last week and the Catalan’s lawyers presented the audio recordings of the aforementioned CTA seminar. The President of the CTA took the floor and attacked one of those present in front of 160 judges and reporters: “To call you a rat seems like too much to me, I think you are neither a hamster nor a mouse.” You are a character , who may not have reached his sporting milestones yet, and now you show why. You wanted to download the meeting, didn’t you?”
The meeting to which Medina Cantalejo referred was the press conference at which he himself appeared together with Andreu Camps, Secretary General of the RFEF. That day, all members had to show up to give a picture of unity, but one didn’t go through the tube: Estrada Fernández.
A few days earlier, the man from Lleida had reported José María Enríquez Negreira, former vice-president of the CTA, to the public prosecutor. This decision did not please Medina Cantalejo, used to the obedience of his subordinates, and he lost his temper, even calling Estrada a “traitor and a bad comrade”.
The threats against Estrada Fernández: “I will kick you out”
In the content of the audios, a belligerent Medina Cantalejo can be discerned, in a tone unseemly for a president, not content with the series of insults, but also screaming for revenge: “One day you will put your paw out and I will. ‘ out, even if it’s the last thing you do in the CTA. I’ll kick you out with all the bad milk I have, and sometimes that’s a lot. But not now. I won’t waste an ounce of adrenaline on you. Be careful because if we catch you we will fuck you in the street because you are the biggest disgrace in the history of Spanish refereeing.”
After this tense episode, the rest of the referees, reporters and managers remained silent and then analyzed the day’s controversial plays.
The chronology of the case, full of blows
- On February 24, Estrada Fernández files a complaint against Enríquez Negreira and his son.
- On March 2, Medina Cantalejo calls the media and defines Estrada as a “traitor”.
- On March 31, the referee from Lleida contacted the RFEF to claim his labor rights.
- The audio seminar will take place in April.
- On May 17, a crucial event occurs: José Alcoba, a former assistant referee and also a VAR specialist, wins the case against the association and has the right to compensation or return to work. A devastating precedent that benefits the interests of the plaintiff members. On the same day, the arbitration act between Estrada and the RFEF took place without an agreement being reached.
- May 20th They send Estrada Fernández to a van to fulfill their VAR duties. An unjustified settlement complaint, since two first division games and the unified second division game were played at the same time. All of his colleagues were able to work in the VOR rooms in the Las Rozas building.
- On May 21, Vinicius was sent off at the Mestalla. The CTA used the controversy with Madrid as an excuse to remove all VAR referees, theoretically for sporting reasons. However, the reality was far from what they wanted to believe. By this point, all of the referees had followed the path set out by Estrada and were on a war base against the federation.
