The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), Víctor Francos, stated this Monday afternoon that the Government is still pending the resolution of the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) on the complaint filed against Luis Rubiales, president of the Federation Spanish Soccer. “We still have no news from the TAD. I don’t know any of its members ”, he stated in Tarragona. And he has sent a message to the Spanish Football Federation: “don’t give another show”.
In an appearance at the Government Delegation in Tarragona, Francos has stated, to questions from journalists, that he did not like the “applause” or the opinions that were expressed in the federation assembly on Friday and that if he had Rubiales in front of him I would say: “You should have left on Friday.” In his statements, he has affirmed that Spain was better viewed to organize the 2030 World Cup before the Rubiales case, although he does not intend to give in to the “desires” of Spanish football and in defending its competitiveness. “Two weeks ago we were in a better position for the 2030 World Cup than we are today. This is a stubborn government; we can explain to FIFA, UEFA and the federations that Spanish football is not what we have seen these days”, he said.
The CSD notified the TAD at 10:40 p.m. on Friday of its own complaint in which it maintains that Rubiales could have committed a “very serious” violation of the Sports Law and the Royal Decree on Sports Discipline that make the aforementioned temporary suspension possible. The legal services of the government body chaired by Víctor Francos consider that the non-consensual kiss to Jennifer Hermoso and her gesture of touching her genitals in the box of the national stadium of Australia during the celebration of the Women’s World Cup have been able to violate the articles that refer, respectively , to abuses of authority and notorious and public acts that violate sporting dignity or decorum. Francos has confirmed that as of January 1, 2024, all sports federations in their governing bodies must apply parity up to a minimum of 40%.
The Rubiales case has generated discrepancies between Vice President Yolanda Díaz and Francos. The also Minister of Labor has indicated that the Government acted “slowly” in the Rubiales case. “I believe that it is true that the Government is acting slowly, and what’s more, I regretted this weekend that it was FIFA that had urged the precautionary suspension of Mr. Rubiales”, he assured after meeting with the president of the majority union of the Spanish women’s soccer, Futpro, Amanda Gutiérrez, and a delegation from her work team. “I have been saying for many days that we are late and I would have liked that the precautionary suspension of Mr. Rubiales had not been made by FIFA. There are political instruments in our country for this ”, she added.
Francos has affirmed that he has no doubt that the vice president acts in good faith, but has warned that the Government has to act under certain procedures and that the federations are private entities subject to public law that are governed like FIFA by their own regulations . “She acts with all the good faith in the world and in line with the Government to condemn without palliatives. With Sumar’s first complaint, Rubiales could not be suspended because the law says something different, ”he warned. “We do everything we can to make things go fast and as smooth as possible. A sanction to a private entity is not the same as to a public one”. “It is not fair that there are those who say that we have acted later than FIFA,” she stressed.
Against the criteria of Yolanda Díaz, the acting Minister of Education and spokesperson for the PSOE, Pilar Alegría, has highlighted the “speed” of the Executive in this case. On Saturday, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, already advanced in EL PAÍS that the Rubiales case was seen for sentencing. “Is the end. It can’t go on like this. It cannot happen that in the face of unacceptable events there is no reaction from the president or the assembly of the football federation. Therefore, it is finished, ”he said.
Francos appeared for the first time before the press on Friday afternoon to send the message that the Government was not going to sit idly by. “Mr. Rubiales has not been up to the task,” said Francos, Miquel Iceta’s right-hand man at the Ministry of Culture and Sports. “He has disappointed in his reaction, he has not done what he should”, reproached the president of the CSD, alluding to the appearance made during the morning by the highest position of Spanish football. “The assembly of the Federation, far from resolving, far from calming the context in which he himself had put us, what he has done has been to fuel the controversy,” Francos added. “Instead of attacking what he had to do was apologize,” Francos made Rubiales ugly. The president of the CSD already affirmed then that we are facing a “very serious fault” and warned of the consequences that this issue could have: “We are in a position for this to be the Me Too of Spanish football”, alluding to the movement to denounce sexual abuse that went viral in 2017.
Díaz has assured that the Ministry of Labor has already acted and has highlighted an informative campaign on all the legal obligations that sports clubs in Spain have to carry out in terms of equality. In this sense, he pointed out that the Labor Inspectorate has deployed two actions, one on the remuneration differences that exist in the world of sport and the second on the equality plans that must exist in “each and every one” of the clubs.
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