A coup de grace to the high salary of Luis Rubiales, who risked losing the nearly one million euros he received for his positions as president of the RFEF and vice-president of UEFA. His departure from the Spanish Federation would entail the total loss of 925,761.81 euros in his gross income. This is the figure between the sum of his salary in Spain –675,761.87–, the 36,000 euros per year in housing aid for having residence in Valencia and having to be in Madrid, plus the 250,000 euros he was maintaining for their responsibilities.
The most recent data published on the RFEF’s transparency tab regarding the president’s remuneration point to a total gross amount in 2021 of 634,518.19 euros, a net figure of 339,237.12 euros, aside from UEFA’s receipt of who has been vice-president since 2019. This figure updated to 2022, with the CPI increase of 6.5 percent, raises his emoluments to 675,761.87 euros.
According to EFE, his annual salary at UEFA is 250,000 euros gross, an amount he could lose anyway if he were to cease these functions.
The meeting of territorial presidents held on Monday addressed this situation with the legal services of the RFEF and, since Rubiales is provisionally punished by FIFA, this is how it appears from now on in the federative human resources department.
Some of those attending the meeting wanted to include in the statement after the meeting the explicit mention of the suspension of employment and salary at Rubiales, but in view of the lack of consensus, it was left out of the text.
The predecessor of Luis Rubiales, Ángel Villar, at the beginning of his term in 1988, collected 390,000 pesetas from the RFEF – around 2,500 euros -, but the board suggested that he receive one million pesetas. In the last year of presidency, his salary was 150,000 gross euros, around 100,000 net.
In view of the provisional suspension of Rubiales by FIFA, the RFEF was not obliged to make any decision in this regard, according to legal sources, since there is no criterion; it is a company policy decision, by the RFEF itself, and the maintenance of the salary does not violate any regulations.
Given that FIFA’s provisional suspension is a sporting sanction, not a labor-related one, it should not affect Rubiales’ payment from the RFEF. However, the suspension prevents him from fulfilling the contract, for this reason legal experts consider that he cannot collect because he is not carrying out his duties. In 2017, Ángel María Villar stopped receiving his salary at the RFEF when the board of directors of the Superior Council of Sports (CSD) suspended him for a year, one day after the Administrative Court of Sport issued the July of that year for his imputation in the Soule operation, for alleged corruption in the organization.
