Victoriano Sánchez Arminio, born in Santander in 1942 and who died yesterday at the age of 80, a victim of cancer, was, for nearly 50 years, one of the main protagonists of the always controversial arbitration of Spanish football. After reaching the Second Division in 1970 and moving to the elite in 1976, he remained active until retirement age and quickly, in 1989, he became part of the powerful appointment committee. Led by Ángel María Villar, in 1993 he was promoted to the presidency of the National Committee of Referees, where he remained for 25 years, until 2018, which logically includes the entire now-controversial period of Enríquez Negreira in the vice presidency.

Sánchez Arminio, yesterday remembered with emotion by former referees such as Iturralde González (“he was like a father, when he had to scold you he would scold you”) or Medina Cantalejo (“he guided us, he helped us a lot to get where we were”), maintained his fidelity to Villar intact. Just a month ago he refused to answer before the judge investigating the Soule case, about an alleged diversion of funds from the collection of pools during the federation presidency of the former Athletic player.

During his refereeing stage, Sánchez Arminio managed three Cup finals (two for Madrid, which won them, and one for Barça, which lost it, in 1986 against Zaragoza at the Vicente Calderón) and in general his balance of 13 seasons it produced more favorable results for the whites than for the blaugrana.

He directed 149 games in the top flight, sanctioned 48 penalties and sent off 25 players. He never against a Madrid player (in 32 games), but he did 6 times against a Barça player (in 34 games): Milonguita Heredia, De la Cruz, Migueli, Tente Sánchez, Marcos and Esteban.

In 1986 he represented Spanish refereeing at the World Cup in Mexico and in his last active year he was awarded the second leg of the UEFA Cup final between Napoli and Stuttgart. He also officiated matches at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the World Youth Championship the following year.

When his name appeared more linked to the inevitable controversies, it was in the very long stage in front of the referees. For a certain press in the capital and especially as a result of the first campaigns orchestrated from the Real Madrid website, Sánchez Arminio was the executing arm of the so-called villarato, the supposed influence in favor of Barça in arbitrations.

The campaign launched against the referee Bernardino González Vázquez, attached to the Galician association, was especially notorious, following the expulsion of Walter Samuel and Zinédine Zidane in a Madrid-Villarreal match in April 2005. “The seven deadly sins of González Vázquez” and the “outrageous performance of the referee by Villar and Sánchez Arminio” were the accusations launched by the official organ of Real Madrid and hung the Galician referee with the label of “star of villarato”. Sánchez Arminio, due to his Cantabrian origin, meant the rupture of the eternal dominance of referee presidents anchored in Madrid and, in most cases, with a background more than close to Real Madrid.

The arrival of Luis Rubiales to the presidency of the Spanish Federation meant in 2018 the change of stage and the replacement of Sánchez Arminio by Carlos Velasco Carballo, at a time of technological renewal and the imminent arrival of VAR.