Former Spanish referee chief accused of embezzlement

MADRID: The former head of Spanish referees, Victoriano Sanchez Arminio, will have to testify as a defendant for alleged embezzlement, as part of an investigation into the former leader of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

Spain’s main criminal court ordered the judge in charge of the investigation to hear Sanchez Arminio, who was president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) between 1993 and 2019, as well as the former secretary general, Raul Masso, as defendants.

The court’s order, made public on Tuesday, also calls for the former president of the RFEF, Angel Maria Villar, to testify again as a defendant in the case. This investigation is prior to and runs parallel to what is known as the “Negreira case”, in which payments from La Liga team Barcelona to companies belonging to the former CTA vice-president, Jose Maria Enrique Negreira, are being investigated.

The Audiencia Nacional gave this order to judge Alejandro Abascal, after partially upholding an appeal by La Liga against the magistrate’s decision not to summon Sanchez Arminio and Masso, after they had already testified as witnesses.