The former vice president of the RFEF, Ángel María Villar, gave an interview yesterday for the Cadena Ser program ‘El Larguero’ in which he discussed several topics. From the ‘Rubiales case’ to the ‘Soule case’, passing through the ‘Negreira case’, among others: “He did not appoint arbitrators. One of the functions of the vice president is to replace the president. He was just another man on the Referees Committee. “When he was there there were two systems to decide (the trios and the computer),” Villar declared about Negreira’s influence within the federation of referees.
Villar explained that he would have left his position if he had found out about the payments received by Negreira: “A judge is investigating it. I have no idea. If both Vitoriano Sánchez Arminio and I had known, Negreira would not last a second on the Committee of Referees. It seemed sad to me. None of us were aware that Barça was paying him,” said the former vice president of the RFEF.
Likewise, he assured that Enríquez Negreira “is not corrupt” and that “it must be the justice system that decides whether or not he is guilty of the acts of which he is accused”: “The money he has received is not correct, but it is not I know why you received it.” Regarding the arbitration establishment, Villar defended that “there are very prepared people” and that he does not believe that there is “any type of corruption” within the organization.
Villar also wanted to clarify his position regarding the ‘Rubiales case’. Firstly, he congratulated the world champions and the work that “comes from many people” from the Royal Spanish Football Federation in support of women’s football. Regarding the kiss of the former president of the RFEF to Jennifer Hermoso and his attitude in the box at the final of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Villar declared the following: “It affected me a lot. I didn’t like it and I don’t think I would do it. But “Yes, I can understand that you lose control when you lose that success. I don’t want to justify anything. What came next was another mistake and I put a lot of blame on the advisors.”
He also clarified that it was a mistake to “try to convince the soccer player” to defend Rubiales through a statement and that he did not like that the Spanish player’s statements to the Prosecutor’s Office came out this week: “A judge is behind it and we are going to let him work.” , he added about the case. Likewise, Villar showed his willingness to “help human beings” when he referred to Luis Rubiales: “Lots of people abandoned me, from the Federation too.”
The former president of the RFEF also defended the system of the governing body of football in Spain, since he considers that with it “Spanish sport has progressed” and regarding the actions regarding equality requested by the players, he pointed out that “sometimes you cannot get there”, even though it would be “the ideal” to carry them out.
