Saturday, January 10, 2026, 00:08
A futsal referee has brought to the attention of the Vizcaya Football Federation and the Referee Committee an unpleasant episode that she suffered on December 13 after calling a match between youth players. «I asked the referee for the next game to leave the locker room so I could shower alone and he refused. He told me to shower in front of him, that he didn’t care,” the affected woman denounces in statements to this newspaper.
The events have been brought to the attention of the federative body and took place at the Sámano sports center, where Castro Urdiales (plays in the Biscayan league despite its Cantabrian origin) faced Auzoak de Zierbena. At the end of the match, as reflected in the annex to the referee’s report to which this newspaper has had access, the woman involved “politely” asked the referee in charge of directing the next match, linked to the Cantabrian federation, to leave the locker room so she could shower, since the woman “was in a hurry to have other refereeing commitments.”
The referee gave him a few minutes of margin and went to the local team representative to receive the payment corresponding to the match and, when he returned, the man had not left the locker room free. «He showed no intention of changing. When I insisted again, he replied ‘if you don’t mind, take a shower. “It doesn’t matter to me,” reflects the document. When he insisted again, he received the same response. «I don’t have to leave the locker room. If you want, you can shower or don’t shower if you’re in such a hurry. “It’s not my problem,” the man argued.
Alternative solution
The victim went to the person responsible for the facilities, who asked the referee to leave the locker room free. When she refused, he offered the woman “to use the pool showers,” to which she agreed. When the young woman was heading towards the other locker rooms, there was a verbal clash with the man, whom she called “asshole.” He, for his part, addressed her as “girl” in a derogatory manner. “The person in charge of the sports center accompanied me to the pool showers so that I could shower in peace and privacy, at least with people of the same sex,” the minutes conclude.
The person involved criticizes that the Cantabrian federation does not give “credibility” to her story. «The Biscayan federation tells me that it has spoken with them and that their response is that there is a recording in which it is confirmed that I shouted and insulted that referee. That does not mean that what the minutes reflect is not true. “It’s not right, but I was defending myself and I didn’t react like that because I felt like it,” the affected woman defends.
