While hundreds of people protested in Madrid’s Plaza de Callao to support Jenni Hermoso, Pedro Rocha, interim president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), and the 18 territorial barons debated how to distance themselves from the management of Luis Rubiales, the president now suspended by FIFA. After a five-hour meeting, they agreed to issue a statement in which they unanimously request the resignation of the highest president of Spanish football. A lukewarm response, since they have the capacity to promote a motion of censure that had some supporters among those present. A gesture that would have obeyed the public demands of the Government, which expected the territorial powers to break the umbilical cord with the Granada leader. Especially after he shouted up to five times on Friday: “I’m not going to resign.” Also, in their day, the barons called for the resignation of Ángel María Villar, who refused to articulate his defense from within the system.
The decision of Rocha and the presidents of the territorial ones was known at night, after a day in which hundreds of people gathered in the center of Madrid – some 5,000, according to the organizers. They did it moved by the non-consensual kiss that the president of the federation planted on the player Jenni Hermoso. “Jenni, sister, here is your herd” or “it’s not a beak, it’s an aggression”, they chanted loudly in the streets of the capital.
FIFA has already suspended Rubiales. But the Spanish institutions are slower: the call for the 8M Commission mobilized many Madrid residents while a forceful response was expected from the federation, which was not such. Nor does sports justice finish starting. The Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), according to Iusport, asked the Higher Sports Council (CSD) on Monday for more documentation to rule, which will delay the suspension by the CSD, dependent on the Government. Its president, Víctor Francos, stressed in an appearance before the press that the resignation should have come last Friday.
The pressure does not stop growing for Rubiales: the Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation against the president of the federation for sexual assault, and the major international newspapers, since The New York Times a The Guardiancontinue to show enormous interest in the case, an international repercussion that could make a mess on the Spain branda and in the Government’s objective of organizing the 2030 World Cup together with Portugal and Morocco. Rubiales’ journey in justice goes on for a long time, but the debate continues to set the networks on fire, and yesterday it took to the streets —with demonstrations also in other cities, as well as a rally in Motril in favor of Rubiales—, and even left behind events like the hunger strike of the president’s mother, secluded before the expectation of television in a church in her hometown.
internal restructuring
In the midst of all this mess, the federation debated in a long assembly an eventual change of course after the departure of Rubiales; The barons also approved suspending the president’s salary and not financing his defense with lawyers in charge of the federation. Francos, the head of the CSD, had called to action a few hours before Pedro Rocha, Rubiales’ provisional replacement, and the territorial presidents: he ordered them not to give “another show,” he said in reference to Rubiales’ aggressive speech on last Friday before the 140 assembly members who applauded him almost in unison. Far from retracting, he entrenched himself in Las Rozas until the defeat of FIFA.
The statement offered this Monday by Rocha and his barons, in addition to requesting the resignation of Rubiales, pointed to a restructuring in the strategic positions of the RFEF, without giving details, even though some voices assume that the contract of the women’s coach should be reviewed. , Jorge Vilda, in addition to breaking the commercial relationship with the legal adviser, Tomás Gonzáez Cueto. The dismissal of the general secretary, Andreu Camps, would also be welcomed by the CSD. In his quest to keep the rubilism, Camps sent a letter to UEFA on Friday to threaten through FIFA the Spanish clubs and the national team that could be excluded from international competitions. Rocha withdrew the letter, but Camps continues in his position despite his attempt.
During the afternoon, the members of the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) met, who had to admit for processing the complaint sent by the CSD on Friday against Rubiales —for the improper gestures in the box and for the non-consensual kiss to Hermoso— and open proceedings. And although an answer was expected yesterday, Francos did not get the answer he expected. Far from resolving, the TAD was sent back to the CSD, from which it requested more documentation to fine-tune the drafting of said file. The doubts of the TAD hold back, for the moment, the provisional suspension of Rubiales by the Council, which continues on its way even though the until now maximum leader of Spanish football has already been suspended by FIFA since last Saturday. Right now, the most real possibilities that Rubiales is definitively expelled from soccer are through the world body.
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