By Mark Baber
September 17 – The Spanish football federation (RFEF) is to forego a state subsidy for the third year in a row in 2014, according to the Spanish Sports Council.
With the national team having picked up prize money and sponsors in its outstanding run of successes, and with Spain still in deep recession and other sports suffering, the announcement has earned praise from secretary of state for sport Miguel Cardenal who said: “It’s yet another thoughtful gesture from (RFEF president) Angel Villar, whom I again thank personally for the sensitivity he has shown in these times when the rest of the federations need help.
“Soccer, in this case the federation, is behaving like a big brother to the other sports and his proposal to the board for a third straight year needs to be brought to the public’s attention.”
If the move meets the approval of the board of directors, it will mean the RFEF will have turned down around €5 million it was entitled to for 2012, 2013 and 2014, an amount equivalent to about 5% of the annual budget – money which will now be available to Spain’s smaller sports federations.
The current World and European Champion’s corporate sponsors include Adidas, Banesto, Cepsa, Continental, Cruzcampo, Gillette, Iberdrola, Iberia, Movistar, Pelayo and Nissan amongst others.
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