Barça win futsal league with Rubiales absent

Since Luis Rubiales decided to take over the organisation of the first and second divisions of Spanish futsal, there hasn't been a quiet day. The pandemic has made everything more difficult, but even this health front could have been better managed with the agreement between the National Futsal League (LNFS) and LaLiga, which has provided many clubs with PCR.

The 2020-2021 season is the first to be organised exclusively by the RFEF without the LNFS. The agreement for the television rights signed by Javier Lozano, president of the LNFS, and Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, was the trigger for Luis Rubiales to punish the former national team coach, give the blame to his enemy Tebas and, in passing, lash out at Mediapro, the company that pays for the futsal rights and broadcasts the matches on Gol Televisión.

The RFEF had a big role to play with the league final. Barça is still in no man's land with futsal. It still belongs to the LNFS, but it needs to maintain good relations with the federation because football is the business that holds the whole entity together. Laporta has disbanded all the sections, including futsal, and their coach Andreu Plaza already faced the play offs knowing that he would not continue next season. By the way, it will be Jesús Velasco, a historic Movistar Inter player, who will be the next owner of the azulgrana bench. 

The excuse of Euro 2020 took Rubiales out of the trance of having to attend, not preside over, the second leg of the final that could have made Levante league champions for the first time in their history. A team opposed to the RFEF in futsal and totally aligned with LaLiga in football. In the Paterna pavilion there were other RFEF representatives, Barça won, and the tie went to Sant Jordi. In the last penalty shootout Barça lifted the title, which was handed over by Pablo Lozano, president of the Andalusian federation, the futsal committee and vice-president of the Spanish federation. A close friend of Rubiales who he has empowered.

The protocol that the LNFS used to put in place in the past for these matches was relegated to what Lozano was able to do, handing over the runner-up prize to Levante, the recognition to the referees and the cup to Aicardo in a very cold gesture. The confetti and posters with the new image of the RFEF were present on the black court with which Rubiales wanted to hide the historic blue court of the LNFS, which is still present in the Gol matches. 

Barça winning the league is the best showcase to sell national futsal. The RFEF did not take advantage at the awards ceremony. Neither Laporta nor Catalá were on the track as presidents of football entities. Rubiales disappeared from the final. What's more, neither members of the committee that manages futsal such as Luis Amado or Paco Sedano, relevant sportsmen in the history of the sport and Barça, put a face to the event. 

For the 2021-2022 season, the RFEF continues to stifle the clubs that have not taken their side. Movistar Inter and José María García led the conspiracy that was hatched in a hotel in Atocha in Madrid where they tried to liquidate the LNFS. Burela, Peñíscola and Jaén seconded the cause, but in two years they have not managed to break the rest of the clubs that remain faithful to the principles of the organisation that managed to give value to futsal after many years.

The LNFS signed a five-year contract with LaLigaSportsTV for the exploitation of the clubs' audiovisual rights, which runs until the 2022/2023 season. In October 2020, the LNFS paid the first of three payments of 50,000 euros per First Division club and 17,000 euros per Second Division club. The clubs that decided to jump ship have not received any amount and their impact in the media has been greatly reduced with all the problems that this implies for sponsors. It is this contract that has Rubiales and the RFEF's lawyers up in arms, insisting that the rights belong to the clubs and can therefore be ceded to the Federation. 

ATALAYAR has been able to access Circular 103 of the Regulatory Rules and Bases for Professional Indoor Football Competition for the 2021-2022 season and the document for the transfer of "assets" until the 2024/2025 season. This second document has reached the First and Second Division clubs as part of the registration for next season.

The regulatory rules include articles similar to those implemented by the LNFS that helped to professionalise futsal. For example, "to make every effort to have a covered pavilion with a minimum of 2,000 spectators for the 2022/2023 season", although they do not contemplate the fitting out of the pavilion for television equipment. They also require "having deposited, at the time of registration, a bank guarantee, a guarantee policy, or by bank transfer at the RFEF, for a minimum amount of 10 percent of the closing audited expenses in the previous season and, in any case, not less than 60,000 euros". This has been criticised in the past as unfair.

This season, clubs have been heavily penalised with fines of up to 2,000 euros for wearing the LNFS patch on the sleeve of their shirts. In order to avoid the penalty, the teams decided to remove the emblem and to put the LNFS logo on their advertising and signage in their stadiums. The RFEF has forbidden this in article 13, section B where they prevent in the pavilions "the advertising of other competitions, associations or sports entities related to international, national or local futsal without the express authorisation of the RFEF".

The audiovisual regulations for next season will once again create serious problems for the clubs. The same article of the text states that "The RFEF is exclusively responsible for the centralised commercialisation of all audiovisual broadcasting rights linked to competitions [...]. The RFEF may market these rights directly or by means of the entrustment provided for in the same Royal Decree-Law. The commercialising entity is obliged to accept the entrustment when it takes place and to comply with the present provisions".

And to deepen the blackmail, they send a document to the clubs in which they oblige them to cede to the RFEF "voluntarily and free of charge for the duration of the Competition, the list of assets indicated in Annex I of this document, for the management of the joint commercialisation with the RFEF and with the other clubs participating in the said Competition". They also talk about the economic amount "once the commercialisation of the assets subject to transfer in Annex I has been carried out, depending on the sponsors adhered to the Competition, the RFEF First Committee will propose the system of distribution of the income obtained" and, in a usurious twist of the letter, they state that "the amount received by each transferring club will depend not only on the sponsors adhered to, but also on the assets subject to transfer by each Club".

The first futsal season organised by the RFEF has not been up to the standards of a sport that is a world champion with the national team and has dominated European and world club futsal. The RFEF has sanctioned players from teams not aligned with their cause with 14 matches due to bureaucratic problems. It has taken away the visibility of the play offs by making matches coincide in the same time slot. And the unfortunate fact that all the matches broadcast by Teledeporte have no repercussions or highlights on social networks because the rights belong to the LNFS and Twitter, Facebook or Instagram are obliged to remove them. 

On the horizon is the World Cup in Lithuania where Spain will once again be favourites. The national team of the two stars will return to the biggest showcase of world futsal to try to keep their domestic embarrassment out of sight.