The Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) has opened a file on Luis Rubiales but it only does so for lack “serious” and not “very serious”. That implies that the government will not be able to suspend you and that the maximum period of disqualification will be two years. A very hard blow to a government that had practically taken it for granted that the TAD would address his complaint for a “very serious” offense and could activate the temporary suspension of the leader in just 48 hours.
The process has taken longer than the Government thought, which presented the reasoned briefs last Friday, urging the TAD to meet urgently on Monday. The court granted the request for urgency, but your meeting was resolved with a request for additional documentation: copies of the communiqués of the RFEF, Jennifer Hermoso and the Futpro union, as well as various videos. He CSD He sent those documents to the TAD at noon on Tuesday and the court met again this Thursday to make the final decision, known this Friday.
The Government expected that his complaint would be dealt with as it had been formulated, but the TAD has lowered the seriousness of the infringement that the suspended president of the RFEF would have allegedly committed for his non-consensual kiss to Jennifer Hermoso in the World Cup final.
Rubiales is already suspended by FIFA
Activating this procedure has no practical effect, since it Rubiales has been suspended from his duties for 90 days since Saturday. The usually slow bureaucracy of FIFA quickly activated itself to clip the wings of the RFEF president as soon as possible. The fact that FIFA made this decision is now especially relevant, since otherwise, Rubiales would continue to be president of the RFEF for all intents and purposes.
In the medium and long term, the file initiated against Rubiales can lead to his disqualification. This can be, given that now the offense is only serious, for a maximum of two years, depending on the conclusions reached by the members of the TAD on the seriousness of the facts denounced. The process of disqualification of Rubiales’ predecessor from office, Ángel María Villar, in 2017, can be taken as an indicative reference: from the opening of the file, then for a very serious misdemeanor, until his resolution passed around five months.
A “very serious” offense
The CSD had denounced that Rubiales incurred in a “very serious” offense for “abuse of authority”, according to the Sports Law; and in another, also “very serious” for “notorious and public acts that violate sports dignity or decorum, when they are particularly serious”, an offense included in Royal Decree 1591/1992 that regulates Sports Discipline.
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The fact that the offense reported is very serious and not serious was what allowed the Government, through the CSD Board of Directors, to make the decision that Rubiales’ suspension be automatic. The CSD, in fact, had several complaints from third parties for serious misconduct on the tablebut he chose to send his own complaint to the TAD to speed up the process of removing Rubiales from office.
Rubiales is also surrounded by ordinary Justice, after this Monday the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court also saw indications of sexual assault in his kiss to Jennifer Hermoso. She considers that in view of the statements made by the player, the kiss was not consented to, and for this reason she opens investigation proceedings, in addition to make an offer of shares to Hermoso giving him the possibility that in 15 days he can formalize a complaint.