The president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, spent this Tuesday morning at the Europa Press Breakfast forum, where he made a fiery defense of his management, announced that he will stand for re-election next year and harshly criticized the President of the Football League, Javier Tebas, with whom he has maintained the terrible relations that his predecessor in office, Ángel Villar, already had: "The best ambassador for the European Super League is Javier Tebas, not Florentino Pérez or Jan Laporta. The CVC thing (the investment fund with which the League has formalized an agreement) has been an economically disastrous management and we also think it is illegal. It has made the poorest poorer and the richest poorer in relation to the Premier ", he claimed.
The president of the Federation also called for a change in format in the league competition, but did not specify any proposal: "As the League is now, football is heading towards decapitalization. But selling itself to a fund that is not an NGO, with Excessive interest at 50 years is not the solution. You have to do something different from the Premier," he said.
Luis Rubiales also charged against the European Super League defended by FC Barcelona and Real Madrid: "I think like Alexander Ceferin (the president of Uefa). The best club competition in the world is the Champions League. UEFA is the government of football and For me, what is fair is to do it as before. UEFA has the backing of the European Union because it embraces the associative model of sport. It may deep down coincide with certain people, but not in terms of form. You can't talk to whom He doesn't want to talk", he insisted again in reference to Javier Tebas.
For Rubiales, having brought the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, a very controversial decision because it is a country that violates human rights, has been a success: "The first success has been the change of format. The final four has "It has been very well accepted. We were interested in exporting our football and generating more income, and that has been achieved by taking the tournament to Saudi Arabia. There is the CVC model and ours, which is to help the clubs generating money with football," he said .
"Without the Arabian Super Cup -continues Rubiales- the tournament itself and many clubs would have disappeared. Many clubs asked me to remove the Super Cup because it was not interesting and even less on the dates it was in, in the summer. With the Super Cup we entered 40 million. Half goes to modest clubs and without them many teams would have disappeared", he justified himself.
The president of the Federation also made a defense of Spanish arbitration and VAR: "There is very little tolerance for error, and it is not only in Spain. I understand that when it is hot or to try to justify it, it can sometimes happen. In the Federation not a single person protested Mbappé's goal in the League of Nations final against Spain and it was illegal. We have the best referees in Europe, but mistakes are inevitable because nothing is infallible and mistakes are human. With him VAR there are fewer pools and offside is infallible ”, he assured.
For Rubiales, the League is by no means decided despite the eleven points that Barcelona takes from Madrid: "We already know that Madrid never gives up. And if it were Madrid that had the advantage that Barça now has Barça would say the same. Barça is in the best position, but in football anything is possible. There are seven or eight fantastic teams in the competition”.
The president of the Federation is confident that they will give the 2030 World Cup to the candidacy of Spain and Portugal: "Our candidacy is going to be the most powerful. It would be fantastic to achieve that for Spain. We are on the right track, but with a dose of humility because there is rivals who are going to do things very well. The Federation is not a public entity. We do not receive public money. But it is the first time in many years that we have received aid from the State to have more strength in the candidacy for the 2030 World Cup, which it would mean billions in income for the country. Next Monday Aleksander Ceferin will come to visit us to support the Iberian Candidacy, and the next day we will have a meeting with the cities that aspire to be host. I am going to run for re-election because there are things to do, and one of the most important is to win the 2030 World Cup for Spain”.
Regarding the controversy over the abandonment of the fifteen-player women's team (the majority from Barcelona), Rubiales commented: "The issue of 15 is settled with a single sentence: 'The RFEF wants footballers committed to the National Team, unconditionally', and this is valid for women and men. This year there is a World Cup and we must have respect for the players who have managed to take us to sixth place in the ranking. Spain is capable of beating anyone. We don't want players who want to go alone to a World Cup or a Eurocup”.
