José Manuel Álvarez de Linera (Vegadeo, 1964) is the president of the Rowing Federation of the Principality of Asturias and supports the motion of censure against the president of Hispaniola, the Asturian Asunción Loriente. Loriente says that the cause of the motion is because she is a woman. Álvarez de Linera denies it and answers Loriente’s statements, which he calls “Asun”, published yesterday by LA NUEVA ESPAÑA.
– What do you think of what Loriente said?
-It’s his opinion. I have read the LA NUEVA ESPAÑA interview and seeing that the only person he names is me, I have to refute them. Says things that are not true.
“He says they want to kick him out for being a woman.” That’s true?
-Completely false.
-And because it says?
“She will know, but she has no argument.” Part of the basis that its management is very good. If you are not worried that one of the medalists (Anna Boada) fell into a depression that caused her to leave the sport … That does not worry you, but then you go on saying that this is a matter of alpha males. It is unfortunate.
– Why now present this motion of censure?
-Actually, this motion of censure was born in 2020, not now. His was a stillborn candidacy. She had support because the opposition was broken by a candidate who aroused even more antipathy than she. Between the bad and the worst, people went for the bad. There was only one candidate when she was elected. The Asturian Federation voted for her in 2018 and in 2021, when there were no candidates, they did not vote for her. Therefore, the Asturian Federation has not moved.
– But they did vote in 2018, so they have moved, right?
-In 2018 he was given a vote of confidence for what he said before. We understand that his behavior with Asturias has always been of contempt. And in recent times, cheeky bridging. He has ignored us.
– What does this contempt consist of?
-She, directly, passes the federations. Talk to the clubs and bypass us. It is belittled and bridged.
–And why does that happen?
“No idea, you have to ask her.”
– Why do you think that happens?
-Because it is his way of acting, not only happens with us. It does the same to all the signatory federations, except the Catalan one.
– What things have you done wrong in your management?
– What things have you done well?
– Count them.
– He says he has the best results ever. Say that with three medals … A rower left the Seville camp due to depression. That’s a fact.
– What specific things are being done wrong in the Spanish Federation?
– The Federation is not transparent, we are wrong in how we work in high competition, we continue to work very badly and we despise the training of athletes as people. There is also an exaggerated weight of the arbitration establishment.
–Loriente said that you supported the motion behind the back of your own board of directors. It’s true?
– Nothing has been done behind anyone’s back and I have no problem showing my writing. I explained to my board that regardless of whether we had an upcoming meeting, we had agreed to avoid leaks and to do so discreetly. Instead of reporting on Sunday afternoon, I did it on Monday morning. She says they asked me for an explanation and it’s a lie. Nobody has told me anything.
– “He alleges that in 2018 I refused to open the Trasona Center because the president of the Asturian Federation was Ana, his wife.” He also said that about you.
– (He takes out the phone and shows the statement sent to his board, which indicates that Loriente did not want to open the center and that the president was Ana Cruz Echeverría, although he does not say anything about her being his wife). We learned that they had agreed that for Asturias there would be nothing. What was it because Ana was the president? It didn’t matter. They did not want to give anything to Asturias, because the Asturian Federation had been against Fernando Climent, which is where Asun comes from.
– How can it be that they have such a bad relationship with an Asturian president?
–It is very easy to say that she is Asturian, that she was born in Castropol and that she was born in rowing. His father was president of the Asturian Rowing Federation in the old regime and in the transition. Her brothers rowed, she never. He has not even had a license for Asturias. Asun enters 2018 and the president of the Asturian Federation held out her hand. It was she who passed from Asturias. We have always been there to collaborate. When in 2019 there was no one to do the Spring Cup, he asked us and we organized it.
-He says there are sexists. Are you macho?
– It seems to me a total lack of respect what he says. The board of the Asturian Federation is made up of seven women and one man. There are other federations with women as presidents who do not flaunt their gender and put them in the same bag. I am not macho.
– He also says that they are a gang of pissed off.
– What amuses me is that you say you do not know José Agustín Gómez-Raggio (leader of the motion), when he was president of the Real Club del Mediterráneo and rower. In the 2017 assembly, he was in charge of exposing the excesses that had been done in the elections. To say that he does not know him, and to affirm that the rowing man is not a man, when he has been in this world all his life … It is nonsense. She has only been a referee. He has never been a club or federation board of directors.
– And that is less?
– No, but it is easy to criticize. In almost no federation in Spain the referees send. In rowing, they rule.
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