The appointment and dismissal of the secretary general is an exclusive responsibility of the president, a position vacant since the resignation of Rubiales
Pedro Rocha is only the president of a management company that is in legal limbo between the statutes and the Ministerial Order that regulates it.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation and the internationals called with Montse Tomé reached a kind of truce on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday that causes all of them, except Mapi León and Patri Guijarro, have agreed to continue concentrating ahead of the matches against Sweden and Switzerland.
One of the agreements reached by the parties, with the mediation of the president of the Higher Sports Council, Victor Francoswas the “imminent” dismissal of several RFEF executives, whose names have not been revealed by the parties. Several media outlets have reported that the first head they want to cut off is that of the general secretary, Andreu Camps. But a serious problem arises when doing so: the statutes of the RFEF do not allow it.
What do the statutes of the RFEF say?
Unlike other positions such as executives, such as area directors or selectors, the functions of the general secretary They are specifically detailed in the federative statutes, specifically in article 39. In section 1 of said section, it is specified that the general secretary is responsible for “the executive direction of the federation” and that “the person in charge of the executive management is designated and dismissed by the presidency”.
Already in section 2 of article 39 it is highlighted that “the appointment of the general secretary will be optional for the president of the RFEF”. And what is the problem? That the RFEF, from the effective resignation of Luis Rubiales 10 days ago, does not have a president.
And Pedro Rocha? The man from Extremadura, in the period between Rubiales’ suspension by FIFA and the resignation of the Andalusian leader, was a kind of interim president. A figure that does not exist as such, but that summarizes well the fact that he could temporarily exercise all the functions and powers that the statutes grant to the president of the RFEF.
In that period of time, Rocha could have easily ordered the dismissal of Camps or any other executive. Once Rubiales resigned, however, he lost that power, since only the assembly has the power to appoint the president, with the board of directors applying article 31.8 of the statutes: “If the president ceases for reasons other than the conclusion of his term, “The board of directors will constitute a management committee and will call elections to fill the position.”
Board of directors or management commission?
Well, he applied it half-heartedly, because no elections were called. That has left the management committee in a kind of legal limbo, since nothing is said in the statutes of the RFEF about its powers. To know them you have to go to the Ministerial Order that regulates electoral processes in sports federations.
In this text, whose last update dates back to December 2015, it is stated that “once new elections are called, the boards of directors will be dissolved, with the management commissions assuming their functions.” In other words, Rocha and the rest of the RFEF directors have reversed the order established in the Ministerial Order: First they formed the manager and they will call elections in the future.
In fact, that same Ministerial Order includes the way in which the manager is composed. One requirement is that The RFEF delegate commission meets to appoint several of its members. And as sources from that delegated commission have confirmed to this newspaper, it has not met at any time, so the manager is not formed according to the Spanish legal framework.
Is there a board of directors in the RFEF? Is there a management commission? Neither one nor the other is one hundred percent, as stated in both the statutes and the Ministerial Order. What is clear is that neither one nor the other, in the absence of a president, can agree to the dismissal of a general secretary.
What can the RFEF do?
In fact, it is more than doubtful that Rocha can now make important decisions, whatever the case may be. the dismissal of area directors, also rumored as part of the pact with the internationals. According to Royal Decree 1835/1991 on Spanish Sports Federations, in its article 18.5, their management committees are “the body in charge of administering and managing the federation during the electoral process, not being able to carry out more than ordinary acts of mere administration and managementas well as as many as may be necessary to guarantee the orderly development of the electoral process.”
Pedro Rocha, this Monday, during the presentation of Montse Tomé as the new coach.
| RODRIGO JIMÉNEZ / EFE
Can dismissals like those that are being put on the table be interpreted as “ordinary acts of mere administration and management”? At first glance, it seems doubtful that this is the case.
Another thing is that someone in the RFEF decides to ignore the regulations, dismiss Camps (or whoever) and risk having the matter decided by a court. Or what he Government acting agrees to modify the regulations expressly so that Rocha can do what has been requested. We will see.