Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 253

Interview
with somebody else, but things didn’t turn out the
way I’d thought. I don’t think he ever got to grips
with not being influenced by me. He wasn’t
capable of being the president he should have
been, a president who supported the WKF
President because he was Spanish. There was a
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde aspect to him that always
held him back. He never forgave me for some
things that were really down to his own
incapacity.”
What was the origin of his insecurity or becoming
distanced from you?
“Well, we once went on a trip to Andorra
together and on the way back he asked me what I
thought about him standing as a member of the
WKF Executive Committee. This was obviously
the wrong question to ask. When a question only
has one possible answer, it’s the wrong question.
I told him I thought it was fine. What else was I
supposed to say? If I’d said no because had no
chance of turning against me or not standing and
then resenting me for the rest of his life. Who am I
to say no to him? I said, organise a campaign.
Work on it. It’s not easy because I’ve got my
people and I’m not going to withdraw my support
from somebody to give it to you. Don’t put me in
that position with my own people.”
When was that?
“It was around 2000 or 2001. Then, in 2002,
when the World Championships were organised in
Madrid, he stood as a member for the EC and
lost. He wasn’t elected. He took it badly and
blamed me. He led me responsible. I was happy
to appoint him as representative of the European
Federation. I did it in a moment of weakness and
he never even thanked me for it. He was there for
four years as a co-opted member appointed by
me. As the President of the European Federation I
was entitled to sit on the EC, but I was already
there as President of the WKF, so I could appoint
someone else and I appointed him. He never
thanked me for that. Then, in Tampere, he stood
for the EC again without telling me in advance
and he lost again. After that he saw me as some
sort of horned devil. It’s a pity, because the last
few years were really quite unpleasant. He even
told me that he’d lost for a second time but he
wanted to be on the EC and that I should do
whatever it took to get him there.”
So what did you do then?
“Well, it was like this. Back then the WKF
shared offices with the Spanish Federation, on
Francisco de Sales street. We even shared some
of the secretarial staff. Things were different back
then. He told me that he was the president of the
Ibero-American Federation and as such I had to
get him on the WKF Executive Committee. I
explained to him that the Ibero-American was

Left: Alejandro Blanco, COE president; Antonio
Espinós, WKF President, and Antonio Moreno,
RFEK President, during Guadalajara World
Championships, 2013.
Center: The World President in the Tribute to
the Master Yasunari Ishimi.
Right: Salvador Herráiz, Antonio Espinós and
Antonio Moreno during the WKF World Congress
2012, in Paris.