Between Thursday, August 24 and Saturday, August 26, the Spanish Football Federation experienced, between the walls of the first floor of the main building of the City of Football, an unprecedented earthquake.. Luis Rubiales' most faithful collaborators tried to maintain their power even in the hours after the suspension of FIFA, which came shortly before 2:00 p.m. that Saturday.. They encountered opposition from several Federation workers, whose attempts to impose sanity are clear in several internal chats to which this newspaper has had exclusive access.

“Andreu, please. “We have to stop this.”. The Director of Communication of the Federation stood before the Secretary General on the afternoon of August 26 and sent him this message via WhatsApp to his mobile phone.. He did it after Luis Rubiales, already officially suspended, had ordered a very tough campaign to be launched against the soccer player Jenni Hermoso.. Camps, right-hand man of the former president, had just sent the DirCom, Pablo García Cuervo, a file with the draft of a statement that the RFEF had to make public in which he harshly attacked the footballer.. He sent him a draft in a Word format file at 3:37 p.m. that Saturday.. In it, Hermoso was accused, among other issues, of “lying” and “having been abducted by the FutPro union.”

This text was finally published on the RFEF website despite the internal rebellion and deleted hours later. The decision to disseminate it caused a schism within those closest to Rubiales and unleashed opposition from some of its most relevant members, who chose to break any ties with the president, who, it is worth insisting, at that time was already suspended.

“Stop what?” Camps responded in an imperative tone in a message to García Cuervo, making it clear that he was not going to change his mind or touch a single word.. “Pablo, prepare and format this statement and when it is ok -sic- we will publish it,” he had previously ordered.

EL MUNDO has accessed these and other internal messages exchanged by the members of Luis Rubiales' team during the crisis that cost the former head of Spanish football his job and which are already in the possession of the RFEF Integrity Department, which maintains internal investigation opened. As this newspaper has learned, within the framework of the investigations initiated by the organization itself, numerous workers have already given statements, some of whom have made their communications available to the RFEF.

This afternoon of August 26 came after Rubiales called the RFEF Assembly the day before (Friday the 25th) to give explanations about what had happened in the World Cup final.. The heads of the territorial federations, the selectors and practically the entire team arrived at the assembly meeting convinced that it was going to be a farewell.. Not in vain, in a meeting held the night before (Thursday the 24th) some of his collaborators, and his own father, advised him to resign.. “You won't be able to find a job if you don't do it,” they told him.

Far from abiding by this strategy, Rubiales fled forward, resisted leaving his position and imposed an escalation of communications against the players.. The internal fight began on the same night of Friday the 26th.. The DirCom spoke by phone with Camps, showed him his disagreement with the line that was being followed and he replied that it was “a direct order from the president”. Camps urged him to speak directly to Rubiales if he did not agree.

“Beautiful, “abducted by the union”

The belligerent strategy reached its zenith the afternoon of the next day, when despite the frontal rejection of García Cuervo and some members of the board, the RFEF released the explosive statement against Hermoso to the media.. “We must state that Mrs.. “Jennifer Hermoso lies in all the statements she makes against the president,” the text stated.. It was the federation's response to the statements made by the player, who denied having consented to the kiss.. What's more, she added that she was pressured to testify in favor of the then head of Spanish football.

The text drawn up by the Rubiales leadership alluded to the “serious contradictions in the initial story” of the player as well as the “serious accusations made by Mrs.. “Beautiful since she was abducted by the Futpro union”. “We have all the relevant reports and expert opinions that prove what the president stated and that we are going to take the corresponding legal actions against all those people who are falsifying reality and committing very serious crimes,” added the document released by Rubiales through the RFEF, when it already had the suspension of FIFA for 90 days on its table. The body led by Gianni Infantino concluded in its ruling that it had “caused irreparable damage to the integrity and reputation of football globally.”

Above, Jenni confirms the fabricated statement

At the end of that endless day at the end of August, with Rubiales already out of the RFEF, replaced on an interim basis by Pedro Rocha, and with the incendiary statement against Hermoso removed from the page, some Federation workers commented on their rejection and indignation at what happened. in those last hours. “What communications. “It makes me want to cry,” said the press officer in that employee chat.

One of them replied: “It makes me feel a little dirty.”. Obviously we are RFEF workers, but damn…. “We are not working for the RFEF.” “They are instrumentalizing the Federation at the service of this man,” García Cuervo added. “On top of that, Jenni confirms the fabricated statement,” indicated a third federation employee, alluding to the fact that the soccer player insisted in which the RFEF had issued a previous press release in which statements that he never made were attributed to him.

The final of the last US Open ends and the defeated, Aryna Sabalenka, congratulates the new champion, Coco Gauff, leaves the court with elegance, maintains her manners in the hallways, reaches the locker room and there, with the door closed, she transforms and breaks his racket with rage, angry, unleashed. She thinks she's already alone, but no.. We are all watching it. «Those images should not have come to light. “It's a private moment in an empty locker room,” says Judy Murray, former tennis player and former coach of her sons Jamie and Andy Murray.

The Athletic-Real Madrid match on the first day of the League is about to begin and the local team players form a group in their locker room so that the captain, Iker Muniain, can pray the Lord's Prayer.. The ritual comes from afar and is broadcast for the first time. Those present, it seems, do not know that they are live. «The locker room is something personal, something private, something for us. You can be praying and you don't want anyone to find out. We players have pet peeves that we don't want to come to light.. I don't like it, I feel uncomfortable,” says the team's and Spain's goalkeeper, Unai Simón.

These are two examples, but there are many, more and more. Where is the limit? In pursuit of the spectacle, cameras and microphones are invading spaces around sport that were until now inaccessible – changing rooms, benches, call cameras, service cars… – and multiple protagonists have already shown their discomfort.. Last November, Sky Sport Italia even showed Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny naked in the preview of a match and he later appealed to his rights.. Entertainment vs. privacy. A growing debate that goes beyond modesty and that, according to the protagonists, has a long history. In some ways it is changing the sport.

«In my opinion, it affects performance. I have never agreed with there being cameras during time-outs, but putting them in the locker room seems horrifying to me.. The communication between a coach and his players changes, everyone's way of behaving changes, everything is more artificial, more tense, everything is different,” argues Jota Cuspinera, former coach of Fuenlabrada, Zaragoza or Estudiantes, who remembers the beginning of the controversy in basketball.

“That 'Put the microphone in there!'”

«When they started recording the timeouts they assured us that it was to better explain the game and almost all the coaches accepted.. Aíto García Reneses, for example, already said no, that he would pay the fines if necessary, but that he did not want to be recorded. He was right. With that mythical 'Put the microphone in there!' “We already saw from Ramón Trecet that what mattered was not the game, it was the morbidity,” argues Cuspinera, who remembers when cameras began to enter the locker rooms and his players decided, as a protest, to receive them “naked.”. «By the fifth game the cameras were already waiting outside. The locker room is our living room or, rather, our bathroom. No stranger should enter the bathroom with you without consent.. Furthermore, what does it do to record a player who has just lost and is sunk? “We have gone from selling sports to selling pure morbidity,” Cuspinera proclaims.

The multiplication of images of athletes before and after their games, in training or even at home with their families is the response to the dominant paradigm a few years ago.. From the times when the fans could attend training and chat with the stars – football, tennis, motorcycling… – they became secretive and the link was broken.. The solution was to make the proximity profitable: now by paying you can witness interiors, once again feel the athletes as close. The international success of documentaries such as Drive to Survive or Sunderland 'Til I Die is an example; In Spain, the best example is the popularity of Movistar after its The least expected day.

«They are two different paths. In documentaries we can edit the images, direct ones are something else.. There it is more difficult to find the balance,” explains Pablo Ordorica, marketing director of Movistar.. «Young people don't want an open plan, they want to be in the action. Soon we will see an on-board camera in the directors' cars and we will hear what they say to their cyclists through the live earpieces.. It makes sense, but it will surely change communications. Furthermore, this loss of privacy must compensate the teams financially,” says Ordorica and he is right.. In the last Tour de France, the organization already wanted to emit the sound of the earpieces as if they were Formula 1 radios and several teams – including Movistar – refused because the reward did not reach 1,000 euros.. Real Madrid voted against the entry of cameras into the locker rooms because, although the League promised that it will allocate a portion of the television rights to it, it has not yet been defined how the distribution will be.. What if it's really not worth it?

“There will be legal conflict”

Athletes sell their image rights to their teams, to competitions, to television stations and to date there have never been any official protests.. But in the not too distant future, perhaps someone will come to the conclusion that, in the signed contract, it was not included in the locker room, for example.. And a complaint may arise for violation of the right to privacy.. “There is no jurisprudence on the matter, but I believe there will be,” says José Domingo Monforte, a lawyer specializing in Sports Law.

«The right to honor, privacy and image has constitutional rank, is personal, individual and incontrovertible. For someone to violate it there must be express consent and the scope of that consent has never been assessed. Contracts for the transfer of rights are usually general. It's one thing to allow them to film me playing and another thing to be naked in the locker room. “When an athlete understands that his honor has been compromised, there will be a legal conflict,” the lawyer concludes about the open debate. Entertainment vs. privacy. Where is the limit?

The Grand Hotel Vesuvius in Naples is located on the Via Partenope, the oldest of the city's centres, named in honor of the mermaid from Greek mythology.. To your left, the Giant's Fountain. To your right, the Villa Comunale, one of the city's historic gardens. In front, the immense Gulf of Naples with Vesuvius on its altar. Real Madrid is staying in the rooms of said building this week and in one of its main rooms, on the night of October 10, 2019, Aurelio de Laurentiis, president of Naples, fired Carlo Ancelotti. Another fight won by the maniac “capo”, as they call him on the decadent streets of the city, of the current Calcio champion. “He is the one who governs everything.”

Aurelio, son and nephew of film producers Luigi and Dino de Laurentiis, was born in Rome, although his genealogy only contains Neapolitan blood.. It is bizarre, bizarre and picturesque… And the owner of Filmauro and Cinettità Studios, and since 2004, to the disgrace and glory of the tifosi, top shareholder of the Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli.

The city lives football in a passionate and almost ecclesiastical way. Maradona reigns in every corner of every street and for a few months now in the name of the football stadium, and although sometimes the Neapolitans themselves have doubts, “nothing is bigger than Napoli”. One is the prophet, the club is the religion. And for that reason, for that unconditional and torn love for the football team and for the sport itself, Naples hates De Laurentiis. This is explained by the taxi drivers, angry with their president for not spending money not only this summer, but “during his entire time at the head of the club”, as Vincenzo says. «De Laurentiis only looks for his money, he does not spend it on players. That's why people hate him,” he explains during a trip.

But above all, they don't forgive him for the fact that his accent sounds like the capital. «When he opens his mouth, he sounds like a Roman. They don't forgive them for that,” says a local journalist. But above all, what they do not forgive him for is that he said that he does not like Neapolitan pizza and that he preferred the Roman one. “It is not good. “I don't like it, I prefer the Roman one,” he said, causing rejection in his city.

«The ultras, always against him»

This turbulent relationship with the tifosi is also explained by the local media, shy of speaking with names and surnames.. Enzo Credendino, from CalcioNapoli24 TV, does it: «He is the only one in charge. He has always had a keen eye financially, but time has proven him right,” he explains.. And last year fate turned the Neapolitans into Scudetto champions for the first time since the time of Maradona. His third title.

A trophy that put the icing on the cake for De Laurentiis' dream and sealed peace with the ultra sector of the old San Paolo. “The ultras have always been against him and have responded to him,” summarizes Credendino, but far from hiding, the owner put his face in front of the violent ones, met with them and ended up defeating them with the same speech they used against him: ” Naples is us ». “That's why he's the boss,” says a source close to the club.

De Laurentiis bought Napoli in Serie C, in the midst of the economic and social drama in the city, and has raised it to become the Italian champion, although for the tifosi not everything has been perfect. «The Scudetto belongs to Spalletti (current Italian coach), Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen. Not his. “He has kept our money,” says Jacopo, a fan, at the foot of the Maradona stadium.

«This summer he has not spent much money, he has refused to sell Osimhen, he has let Spalletti go and he has chosen Rudi García himself, who was in Arabia. “He wants to show that the title is his,” explains Credentino.. Cristiano Giuntoli, De Laurentiis' right-hand man, also left in July to sign for Juventus, something considered high treason in southern Italy.

“You guys are shit”

And beyond football, De Laurentiis is feared in offices. Agents, players and coaches who have worked at the same table with him attest that he is “one of the toughest negotiators in the world of football.”. “He's crazy,” answers a footballer who was quite close to him. Another manager says that in a Serie A meeting, he got up from the table and told the rest of the presidents: “You guys are shit, I'm going back to the movies.”. And an agent who negotiated with him admits that he ended up accepting his terms because he is “the toughest man I've ever met.”

Investigated for the signing of Osimhen for 70 million, a figure that at that time was out of the market, he now faces the need to sell Bari, a club also under his ownership, because it has been promoted to Serie B. A controversy resulting from success, like his 19 years in champion Napoli.

Hours before taking the flight to Qatar, where the seventeenth race of the 2023 World Cup will be held this weekend, Carlos Sainz saved a space in his agenda for an event organized in Madrid by his sponsor Estrella Galicia. After the victory in Singapore, the Madrid driver faces the six remaining events with some optimism. “It has been a season from less to more and perhaps now we are in the best moment. Obviously I want everything to continue going just as well, but we have to keep trying to improve, to get on some more podiums,” he says.

The primary objective at Ferrari, in Sainz's opinion, is to “try to finish second in the Constructors' World Championship”, given that right now Mercedes only leads them by 20 points.. “On a personal level”, the Spanish driver will try to “continue getting the best performance out of the car and if the opportunity comes to make podiums or a victory, be there to achieve it”.

Sainz's great level after the holidays has helped him score 58 points in four races, 22 more than Charles Leclerc, his garage partner. However, Carlos is well aware of the difficulties that the SF-23 designed in Maranello continues to pose.. “I wasn't comfortable last year and this year I'm not comfortable either.”. It is not a car that I love, I don't enjoy getting performance out of it, but thanks to the experience of 2022 I have learned to guide my style,” he analyzed.

“Take advantage of opportunities”

“Honestly, we didn't bring any improvements to Singapore or Monza; it was simply a car and a set-up that adapted well.. But then you also have to know how to take advantage of opportunities and in Marina Bay we managed to take advantage of them perfectly and be at a high level of both piloting and strategy,” he added.

Regarding the rivalry with Leclerc, which has triggered numerous comments due to the alleged favorable treatment towards the Monegasque, Sainz opted for a conciliatory stance. “These cars are very difficult to understand and bring to your work window. But in Ferrari that doesn't happen, we are always close to each other, it doesn't matter who is in front or behind.. And that is a very important asset for the team.. “We push each other a lot.”

“I don't see them making many zeros”

Regarding the goal of third place in the World Cup, where he must fight with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, Sainz was not excessively optimistic.. “I would need both to have several zeros. And I don't see the world champions, with the experience they have, making many zeros,” he predicted.

Finally, the former McLaren and Renault driver left a note about the hegemony of Red Bull, which was proclaimed World Championship champion in Suzuka with six races to spare.. “Without them, Ferrari would be having a pretty decent year and it would be one of the most even and fun seasons, with Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren.”