The statement issued on Monday by the Commission of Territorial Presidents of the RFEF drew attention to the appeal made to Luis Rubiales to present his resignation. And he did it for two reasons: first, because it was a unanimous statement by a group of leaders who until the suspension of the president by FIFA they were mostly favorable to him; the second, because, on paper as members of the assembly, they can initiate a process to force their dismissal, in the form of a motion of censure. The reality is that, by regulation, they cannot do so.
Because the days go by and, despite the outcry against him, Rubiales continues to be the president of the RFEF. Suspended, yes, but president nonetheless. In fact, to Pedro Rochahis successor, is called interim president, but it is no more than a colloquial mention, since formally he is the “deputy vice president to the Presidency” who, in compliance with articles 31.7 and 32.4 of the RFEF Statutes, is replacing him with a “assuming absence, illness or any other cause that temporarily prevents them from performing their duties”. Provisional suspension is one of those causes.
But it should be emphasized once again that Rubiales continues to be the president of the RFEF, even though he is temporarily unable to perform the functions of the position. And that implies, for example, that a possible resignation of Rocha would not imply the cessation of the board of directors and the automatic formation of a Management Commission, as would happen if Rubiales were the resigner. If Rocha left, it would be another manager who would occupy the so-called interim presidency.
Rubiales cannot suffer a motion of no confidence
And if there was a motion of censure? Again, what is noteworthy here is that this would always be against Rubiales and not against Rocha. The only problem they have in the RFEF is that the regulations governing the Spanish sports federations prevents promoting a motion of no confidence at this time of the year in the federations with a presence in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. And the football federation responds to this casuistry, since The men’s team already has a guaranteed ticket.
Order ECD/2764/2015, of December 18, is the regulation that regulates electoral processes in Spanish sports federations. In its article 19 a), it states that a motion of censure “cannot be presented during the first six months of the mandate, nor when there are between six months and one year remaining until the date from which the call for elections can be madecircumstance to be determined by the federal regulations”.
And when can the elections be called? For that, article 2.3 of that same legal text must be followed: “electoral processes for the election of the aforementioned bodies [asambleas generales, presidentes y comisiones delegadas] they will be carried out coinciding with the year in which the Summer Olympic Games are held, and must begin within the first four-month period of said year. However, the Spanish sports federations that are going to participate in the Summer Olympic Games They will begin their electoral processes within two months of their completion.“.
The motion of censure is already out of time
The Paris Olympic Games are scheduled to end on August 11, 2024, so the electoral processes of federations such as soccer must begin before October 11, 2024 and, what is relevant in this case, after August 12, 2024. As the legal text states that the motion cannot be presented when “one year remains until the date from which the call for elections can be made”, it is no longer legal for it to be done.
The conclusion is that the bodies of the RFEF (board of directors, general assembly, commission of territorial presidents…) do not enjoy no internal tool to force the dismissal of its suspended president. And surely therein lies the reason why Rubiales decided not to resign in the assembly on Friday, despite having announced to his hard core that he would do so just a few hours before.
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There are only two ways for Rubiales to cease definitively and without turning back as president. One is that he voluntarily resigns and the other is that he is disqualified by FIFA or by the TADan organization that has not even accepted the CSD’s complaint for processing to initiate a file.
Villar’s precedent
The times prevent, definitively, that the RFEF can do with Rubiales the same thing that Rubiales himself did with Ángel María Villar. The Andalusian leader presented a motion of censure against the Basque when he was already provisionally suspended by the CSD, the situation to which he is now exposed. Villar, in fact, tried to avoid it by arguing that he could not be the passive subject of a motion of censure by being suspended. The Electoral Commission did not give the reason, although the motion was not carried out because the disqualification of the TAD came before.