Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 252

What did you talk about at the
meeting?
“There were about twenty people
there, all deeply involved in the
details of the Federation, and I didn’t
have a clue about anything. They
asked me “So, what are your
plans?” And I said, “Me? None at
all.” And they must have liked. I
think they would have liked anything
I’d said, frankly. There was no way
to stop it after that. They convinced
me. I didn’t even run a campaign. I
went to Valladolid one day, with
Matías Romo and Enrique Guerra.
And that was it.”
So the day of the vote arrived – and I
was there, by the way, as a member of
the General Assembly of the Spanish
Federation, with the right to cast a
vote, which I did. What do you
remember about that fateful day?
“During the vote there were some
people had no idea who I was. Some
who were sitting next to me were
even saying nasty things about me.”
But did they know that it was you
sitting next to them?
“Of course they did. That’s why
they were doing it, so I would hear. I
felt terrible. What had I done to
deserve that? I just didn’t want to be
there, in an election there was no
way of winning and… But I won, by
53 votes to 58. I couldn’t believe it. I
thought, “What am I supposed to do
now?” When I first set foot in the
federation’s offices, in Martínez
Campos street, I was already the
President.”
What were those early days like?
“They were very hard because I
had two very serious problems to
deal with as soon as I arrived.
Celestino Fernández had received
the full subsidy for 1984 and had
spent it all. A few weeks later we
had to go to the World
Championships in Maastricht and
we didn’t have any money. In the
end we got a loan or the travel
agency gave us credit or something
and we were able to go. Then there
was a big problem with the Catalan
federation, which had been awarded
the European Junior championships
to be held in February 1985. The
Catalan’s were in Celestino’s camp

and had voted against me, because
my style was different and a few
other things as well. They’d done
some black-belt exams on their own
account. I tried to stop it but they
went ahead anyway. So then I tried
to get the European Championships
taken away from them and sent
Adan Czartoryski to investigate and
based on his report have grounds to
take the tournament away from me.
How naïve I was. Adan came back to
tell me that they’d organise
everything brilliantly, but even so I
took the tournament from them. In
the end it was held in Madrid, at the
Palacio de Deportes, which was a
bit of a mixed blessing, but
anyway…. What happened was that
a war then broke out. A coordinating
committee was set up in Catalonia
and the truth is that it worked very
well for a long time, but there were
all sorts of problems.”
Yes, I remember. You were very
“popular” there for a time. I remember
once seeing some placards about you
at some championship in Barcelona,
which weren’t very flattering, let’s say.
“I can’t remember how we sorted
it out eventually.”
Was Josep Bosch involved back
then? He’s still arou