Former Catalan judge Javier Estrada Fernandez has caused controversy with his recent statements about the structure of justice division in Spain, claiming that the absence of representation of Catalan judges in the football elite is linked to what he described as hatred of the Catalans.

Estrada Fernandez, who has in the past led the game at La League, has become a known name for the constant criticism of the Judges Technical Committee ( CTA) and what he considers corruption within this institution.

Speaking at the Catalan podkast La Reinaixencha, the former judge said that the number of referees from Catalonia to the Spanish football elite is very small.

Unfortunately, there are very few Catalan judges in the elite, he declared. When asked about reason, Estrada Fernandez pointed to what he described as hatred of the Catalans.

He supported his claim to data, stressing that Catalonia has the largest number of federal licenses for footballers, trainers and judges, but despite that remains among the less represented regions at the highest level of arbitration.

Judges arriving at the elite or running international matches can count with the fingers of one hand, he added.

According to the former judge, this situation is not new, but continues for decades. He announced that more than 2,000 judges are registered in Catalon, but only a very small number have reached the highest levels of separation of justice.

Estrada Fernandez stressed that judges should be assessed only on the basis of their skills and performance, rather than on the basis of the region from which they came.

The problem we have is that judges should be assessed on the basis of their abilities, and never according to the region where they came from, but that happens very often, he concluded. /Telegraph/