Winning an international championship always has its rewards. Beyond the honour, the medals and the trophy itself, the Cup itself comes loaded with prizes. The Euro Cup that the Spanish national team won this summer in Berlin – La Roja beat England 2-1 in the final on 14 July – came to Spain with 28.5 million euros. A portion of which the footballers themselves receive 40%, around 11.3 million. The rest stays in the coffers of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), which usually distributes part of it among the territorial federations. And so it has done this August. The RFEF has distributed five million euros among the 19 autonomous federations in an equitable and not proportional manner, as is usually the case with subsidies that come from public funds through the Higher Sports Council (CSD). And this has annoyed some regional presidents, including those of the Catalan and Madrid regions, who have received half of what they would have received if the usual criteria had been applied, which takes into account the volume of federative licenses; or the Valencian one, who is missing some 100,000 euros that would have been more than enough with a different distribution.
The federation and its new general secretary, Álvaro de Miguel Casanueva, who is currently in charge of day-to-day management of a federation that has been headless since the resignation of Luis Rubiales a year ago, approved in assembly the bases for the granting of these extraordinary aids. This call, the document, which this newspaper has consulted, states, is made “under the provisions of the ‘Manual of procedures for the distribution of subsidies to the autonomous and/or territorial federations and other members of the RFEF’ duly approved by the board of directors of the RFEF.” This manual was effectively approved by the board, but not without discussion.
Some regional presidents defended a linear distribution, according to the number of licenses, and others, the majority, at the head of smaller federations, argued for the same amount to be granted to all the autonomous federations. Only one of the barons, Marcelino Maté, at the head of one of the less important regional federations, that of Castilla y León, supported the former, even though he knew that it would be detrimental to him if it were so. But the equal distribution won. And each of the regional federations has received just over 263,000 euros from the RFEF’s own funds after it received from UEFA the amount corresponding to the Euro Cup won in Germany.
The noise is particularly striking at a time of transition when the president of the RFEF, Pedro Rocha, is in no man’s land and has disappeared from public life. The Extremadura native has been banned for two years after the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) considered that he made decisions that were not his responsibility when he occupied the position on an interim basis after Rubiales’ departure. However, the ban is pending a precautionary measure pending resolution. Therefore, Rocha continues to manoeuvre discreetly at the headquarters of the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas. The granting and distribution of subsidies between the territorial federations is usually a very useful tool to satisfy the different federations, especially when elections for the presidency are about to be held in which all the territorial barons have a voice and vote, regardless of the volume of licenses they manage.
It is essential to justify what the aid is used for
The document cited for the distribution of subsidies also sets out a series of criteria to be met by the territorial authorities, the same criteria required to receive public subsidies, such as having a code of good governance or being up to date with payments. Likewise, the manual in question requires that the purpose of the aid be justified and a set of bases is established to ensure that the investment is correct. “The aid must be allocated to programmes to encourage or promote amateur football”, also to the “promotion and development of women’s football”, referee training courses, improvement of services and health care; also to cover the costs of issuing federation licences. A justification must be presented for all of this, a requirement that is based on the motu proprio of the new general secretary, who is only obliged to carry out this monitoring when it comes to public funds, which would not be the case. “Failure to submit the justification within the established period will imply the initiation of a procedure for total or partial revocation of the aid granted,” the document concludes.
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