By Joiner Martínez
Sep 26, 2023, 7:15 PM EDT
The ‘Rubiales case’ continues to cause a multitude of changes, both in the Royal Spanish Football Federation and in UEFA, where the former president of the RFEF served as vice president before the scandal took place.
One of the changes is that this vice-presidency position within UEFA became vacant after Luis Rubiales resigned after being provisionally suspended for 90 days by FIFA, all on August 26, for his behavior in the final of the Women’s World Cup and at the medal ceremony in which he kissed the international Jenni Hermoso.
This Tuesday, the UEFA Executive Committee appointed Albanian Armand Duka, president of the Albanian Federation and member of the Executive since 2019, in his place.
Furthermore, given the current instability within the RFEF, which is undergoing a rather complex in-depth renovation, UEFA has also decided to move the headquarters of its 2024 Congress from Madrid to Paris. This change in the venue of the 48th Ordinary Congress from Madrid to Paris, on February 8, 2024, will also motivate the draw for the group stage of the 2024-2025 Nations League, in which Spain will precisely participate as champion, to pass also to the French capital that same day.
Another UEFA measure
UEFA was the first sporting body to react to the war in Ukraine and took decisive action in February 2022: it suspended all Russian teams from its competitions and eliminated scheduled events in Russia such as the UEFA Champions League final in Saint Petersburg and the UEFA Super Cup in Kazan, as well as terminating its sponsorship contract with Gazprom.
However, UEFA is also aware that children should not be punished for actions for which responsibility falls exclusively on adults and is firmly convinced that football should never give up sending messages of peace and hope. It is particularly painful that, due to the long-standing conflict, a generation of minors is deprived of their right to compete in international football.
For these reasons, the UEFA Executive Committee has decided that Russian youth teams will be readmitted to its competitions later this season. In this regard, the Executive Committee has asked the UEFA administration to propose a technical solution that would allow the reinstatement of the Russian U-17 teams (both women’s and men’s) even when the draws have already been held. All matches of Russian teams will be played without the country’s flag, anthem, national uniform and outside Russian territory.
Keep reading:
Spain put aside its leadership problems and beat Sweden in its debut in the Nations League [Video]
Judge investigating Rubiales case summoned three of Jenni Hermoso’s teammates on the Spanish soccer team to testify
The revolution continues in the RFEF: The general secretary, Andreu Camps, is fired