This is how the Rubiales clan tried to cling to power: "Andreu, please, we have to stop this"

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.