In the afternoon of last Thursday, August 24, Luis Rubiales met his trusted team in your office and he confirmed the news: “Tomorrow I resign. There is no point in continuing with this. We have no way out.” The pressure of the Government, after the declarations of Pedro Sánchez, Miquel Iceta, Félix Bolaños and Víctor Francos, cornered the president of the Spanish Football Federation and splashed the assembly members. And that leak is the one that has sunk the ship of a Rubiales who called the extraordinary assembly to shield himself and come out on his shoulders with the unanimous support of his loyal assembly members. But as the hours passed and they contacted them, it was confirmed that he would not only not achieve that unanimous support. He wouldn’t even be able to carry it out, for which he needed 70 votes out of 140.
After Getafe opened the friendly fire of the clubs against him, Real Sociedad joined in with an Aperribay who pointed out: “The events were very serious, as was the image of the head of Spanish football in the Federation.” After the people from San Sebastián the trickling began: Athletic, Alaves, Betis… And a Cádiz that charged with special virulence: “This club has not believed, nor does it believe, nor will it believe in the management of Luis Rubiales. We will not go to the assembly, but this decision is not motivated by his latest performances, although now he is a sad protagonist for unspeakable acts and for what our football is marked worldwide. We are not going for many others in which it has not lived up to what this sport deserves, from the most modest categories to the professionals, both in the female, male or with the referees”.
The lace of Iceta and the FIFA file
Spirits faltered on the third floor of the Ciudad del Fútbol, especially after learning that FIFA was opening a file on Rubiales for violating article 13.1 and 13.2 of its regulations, in relation to “violating the basic rules of dignified conduct, or insulting a natural or legal person in any way, especially using gestures, signs or offensive language”. The obscene gestures of the man from Motril in the Sydney box, putting his hand to his crotch in the presence of Queen Letizia and of Gianni InfantinoPresident of FIFAthey did not overlook.
Nor did they like an Aleksandr Ceferin who was not present and who saw how the Andalusianvice president of UEFA, was the highest position of the European institution in the final of the women’s World Cup. UEFA warned that it was studying the case and did not rule out expelling him from its Executive Committee in case of being disqualified.
Precisely at that time, while the decision of FIFA and UEFA was known, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, gave Rubiales the last straw, confirming that “next week the CSD will submit the complaints to the TAD.” That meant that whatever happened in the assembly, and whatever the result of the internal investigation of the Integrity department of the Federationthe Government would disqualify him by sending him to a limbo in which he would lose all his power at the command of the RFEF, to later follow a tortuous process that would end with his resignation.
The complaints raised to the TAD and the Futpro statement
Jenni Hermoso’s decision to place the management of the different measures to be taken in the hands of the Futpro union also weighed heavily on a Rubiales who was deflating as he accumulated setbacks. Despite this, Rubiales did not consider resigning at any time until he began to realize that he would not carry out the assembly on Friday.
Wednesday was already a difficult day for the president, bunkered in his office and hanging on the phone on his 46th birthday trying to put out fires instead of enjoying the day. But this Thursday has meant a reality check with two decisive blows that have ended up undermining his resistance and credibility before the assembly members:
FIFA’s decision and Iceta’s confirmation of submitting to the TAD the four complaints against Rubiales. The last one formulated by the Professional Women’s Soccer League, which was added to those that had already been carried out Miguel Angel Galan, president of the National Training Center for Soccer Coaches (CENAFE); of Add; and of Xavier Estrada Fernandezformer referee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Five years of scandals and remarkable sports management
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This Friday Rubiales will stage his goodbye in a Football City, which will be packed with accredited media to report on the departure of the president of the Federation. At the end of the afternoon, the Federation’s press department reported that “in view of the extremely high attendance of accredited media for the Assembly in Las Rozas, due to space issues, the Villalonga room and the attached classrooms as well as the cafeteria attached to the gym for media work“.
Rubiales miscalculated and called an assembly that will end up being his grave. Thus ended five years of scandals, rudeness, obscurantism and arrogance in a remarkable sports management (conquest of the Nations League and the women’s World Cup), but whose forms have lost him. Rubiales is leaving and it’s good that he does. And that he do it “for her daughters”, as he begged Jenni Hermoso to appear in the apology video that no one believed.