Rubiales' latest failed project: from "excellent competition" to the threat of charging for arbitrations

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On April 15, 2021,

explained what the competition he had designed to give value to the highest category of football under the umbrella of the Spanish Federation would be like.

The

banished the chaos of the Second B and set itself the goal of getting closer to professional football in management and competitiveness.

"I want to achieve a competition that achieves excellence," summed up the president.

Two years later, his bet has foundered and could disappear.

Of the two premises by which it was promoted, profitability and competitiveness, only one is disputed that it has been achieved.

The concentration of

has provided more attractive sports duels between historic teams from big capitals such as Deportivo de la Coruña, Córdoba, Real Murcia or Castellón, as well as six Primera subsidiaries including Castilla. or Barça B.

The Achilles heel has been management.

In a category that moves around 100 million euros per year, only five of the 40 clubs have not made losses and the rest accumulate an annual average of between 1.2 and 1.4 million.

That's more than 40 million annually.

Javier Gómez, president of UD San ​​Sebastián de los Reyes, assures EL MUNDO.

The clubs have had to make investments in stadiums that must have a capacity for 4,000 spectators, natural grass and lighting that allows the television broadcast of the matches.

That in addition to professional contracts for the players: 18 professional files with a minimum salary of 20,000 euros gross per year.

"There is no longer anyone here who works and plays, as was the case before," he recalls.

Two of those who started the competition, Extremadura and DUX Madrid are out of the competition because they cannot pay the footballers.

The personal chapter and the

eat up the budget.

The example may be the San Fernando, which from Cádiz has to travel to Ferrol, Pontevedra, Coruña and Vigo.

That supposes a mouthful of 400,000 euros per season when the television income it receives, which should have been the manna of the category, reaches 230,000 euros.

Aid and television rights

The generation of resources and financial control is where the problem lies.

Some clubs created the

to exercise greater control of the 20 million they receive in aid from the RFEF, “the largest amount that a federation distributes worldwide.

We can compare with France, which distributes 200,000 among 18 clubs in the category, "explain federative sources.

For the clubs they are not aid as such, because they include the

that they already received, the sale of 40% of the

for 3.5 million (only some have transferred it) and, above all, the television rights.

The RFEF promised to pay the clubs

in exchange for a joint commercialization that awarded

.

It was the first setback.

The broadcasts were poor in quality and the company withdrew.

This season they are in the hands of InSat, which paid two million, and has been transferred to some regional channels to raise between four and five million.

The rest up to 9.7 have come from the direct coffers of the Federation.

«It cannot be that a game is cut off at minute 60, because people stop subscribing.

, "says Gómez.

Some clubs believe that the value could increase and have suggested to Rubiales in several meetings that he transfer this marketing to

, something that does not enter into the plans of the Federation, which recognizes the difficulty of obtaining more profit but remembers that the rights of the competitions in the hands of Thebes are going down.

Economic control

Given this scenario, the Federation proposed last January to the clubs a reformulation of the management model: they had to choose to leave their umbrella and their aid to seek profitability independently, -which includes, for example, starting to

-, or accept strict financial control by FIFA, which would limit the cost of the squads to 70% of the budget, "so as not to inflate the player market", and the transfer of commercial assets, including television.

What this control would consist of and how it is going to be exercised is what 18 of the 40 clubs that have requested a meeting by letter to the Federation that could take place in the coming days want to clarify.

«We do not want the First RFEF to disappear, it is attractive and has the capacity to be viable.

We ask for economic control, but we want to know it and participate, "says Javier Gómez.

The Federation, which already gave in with the

due to criticism, this time is more blunt when airing that the disappearance is a possibility that is gaining strength and opens the door to another Second B with between five and six groups.

The eternal shadow of Thebes

In the conflict that could put an end to the First RFEF, dynamited from within, lies the eternal open war between the Federation and LaLiga for control of Spanish football.

' commitment to

extend the days from Friday to Monday so as not to accumulate games on the same television schedule.

Also due to the president's desire to take a First Division match to other countries to increase interest in the competition, something that was not possible and was highly criticized by the RFEF to, shortly after, announce that it was taking the

to Arabia in order to to raise resources for non-professional football.

The last one has been as indirect as this one that now pits the First RFEF clubs against the body chaired by Luis Rubiales.

The suspicion that Tebas is behind the clubs that torpedo the management model is held in Las Rozas.

As they also had it during the creation of the

that professionalized the first category of women's soccer and took it out of federative control.

The economic power acquired by LaLiga means that they have resources with which to help these categories in exchange for fattening the television package that they could offer if they had control of the main competitions in the country, the professionals and those that, being an amateur, have a structure Close to professionalism.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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