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The great riot in Spanish badminton (that Carolina Marín has been waiting for years)

20/01/2020 05:00Updated: 01/20/2020 3:49 PM

“After deep thought, I wanted to inform you that I will not stand for reelection as president in the next FESBA elections. In addition, the intention is to request the electoral advance, so that the new president and his team can address, as soon as possible, all the important events and challenges that Spanish badminton has ahead. I will inform you in greater detail at the next JD meeting, which I anticipate that we will convene during the Spain Under 17 International Benalmádena, and of which you will receive information shortly “.

Thus, with a brief statement that he sent at night and also treacherously to his Board of Directors, the Delegate Commission and the presidents of the territorial, tried to dispatch David Cabello what should have been his sudden resignation as president of the Spanish Badminton Federation (FESBA). In fact, this is what he assured his vice presidents that he would do after the serious irregularities that we revealed in El Confidencial and, most importantly, that the Higher Sports Council (CSD) has in his possession, as he was personally informed last week at a meeting to which he was summoned at the CSD headquarters.

[Así es la cara oscura del bádminton español]

However, Cabello does not finish leaving office and patience has run out at the Ferraz headquarters. The Benalmádena Spain Under-17 International to which he refers is held from February 7 to 9. The Jaén trusts it too far to continue as president, because all FESBA workers, starting with its recently resigned CEO, demand that you resign. The same as two of her three vice presidents, the Navarrese Marta Puente and the Andalusian Carlos Longo, and the vast majority of the presidents of the territorial ones, because those who have not run against them have not done so in their favor …

While Cabello refuses to resign, irregularities committed in the FESBA under his mandate continue to be known. Here we advance some of those found in the inspection that is being carried out of the 2017 accounts and those of 2018 will be known shortly, which will surely be more numerous. Irregularities that remain to be seen if they remain in the administrative field or transcend the criminal, something that in the case of the still president of Spanish badminton would be very delicate, as it should be remembered that David Cabello has already been sentenced to six months in prison for plagiarism with his wife, Esther puga.

Logically, that very serious sentence from which he finally got rid Andreu Camps, currently secretary general of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), brought him problems with University of Granada, where they hardly see him. Normal, then, according to the settlements presented, it spends more than 300 days a year outside the Nasrid city.

In a meeting held at the FESBA headquarters last Saturday, January 11, the general director acknowledged the serious irregularities committed under the protection of its president and, together with the vice-presidents present there, stated that it was time to ask Cabello for his resignation. The person in charge of communicating it was the general director himself —whose resignation, by the way, the president has taken five days to communicate to the Board of Directors—, although later it was ratified by the vice president of the sports area and president of the Andalusian federation, Carlos Longo, who is determined to clean and regenerate FESBA together with the president of the Basque Country, Andoni Azurmendi, and that of the Valencian, Ferrán Feliu.

David Cabello, president of the Spanish Badminton Federation.  (EFE)
David Cabello, president of the Spanish Badminton Federation. (EFE)

Carolina Marin, who has lived what happened the last days since Indonesia, you already know the departure of the CEO and I was confident that this would be followed by that of the President, something that the Spanish champion already asked publicly in June 2015. Since then, El Confidencial has denounced the irregular management of David Cabello, but surprisingly no media has echoed it. Unfortunately, this is the tendency of many colleagues to inform or, rather, distract with banalities and look the other way on issues that involve a commitment to the information and to those who are informed. Sports policy is boring, but essential, hence it must be monitored and, if irregularities are found, report them. Sensationalism? No, it’s called Journalism …

The year 2018, which is the year that the CSD is now investigating, presents irregularities similar to those of 2017 and details of them will be known soon, although we can anticipate that the figure almost doubles what was approved: 41,132.03 euros, to be exact. In addition, the liquidated president of the FESBA did not change his way of acting in 2019, whose accounts are not being investigated at the moment, but may bring an even bigger surprise. Proof of this is the loan that he had to ask the CSD instead of working to optimize the support of his sponsors, who are logically very upset with this situation. An example is the case of Toyota, which also sponsors Carolina Marín, not to mention what happens with the BWF World Tour de Barcelona

Year after year deceiving the Assembly

The CSD already warned him a few years ago that he could not collect with this irregular formula, but Cabello ignored and deceived the General Assembly year after year. First, with the agreement between the University of Granada Foundation and the FESBA that the CSD cut him off. And then, starting in 2017, charging a large amount of money in kilometers, food allowances and salaries per day, many of them fictitious, to arrive at the amounts that were not reported to the CSD as the president’s compensation.

The fictitious settlements will have to be returned in full. No longer by mandate of the CSD, which could lead to something more complex, but by the internal mandate of the people who take control of the FESBA after so many resignations that there have been and will surely continue to exist. Such practices are not surprising, since FESBA’s internal audit and control committee is made up of members of this federation itself, who in this way audit themselves, something that the CSD has also indicated needs to change urgently.

Carolina Marín, along with Ratchanok Intanon, after the final in Indonesia.  (EFE)Carolina Marín, along with Ratchanok Intanon, after the final in Indonesia.  (EFE)
Carolina Marín, along with Ratchanok Intanon, after the final in Indonesia. (EFE)

The situation is already untenable and only the immediate resignation of Cabello could alleviate it. Carolina Marín returns next week from another successful Asian tour – this Sunday she was runner-up in Indonesia– and its technical team, with Fernando Rivas up front don’t want distractions though Do not doubt that the Olympic champion and three-time world champion will join this mutiny that she herself started when she asked for the resignation of a character she cannot stand. Spanish badminton has great sporting challenges this 2020, in addition to the 2021 World Cup in Huelva, and their liquidated president is putting them seriously at risk for resisting resignation.

The regeneration of the FESBA can only begin without a David Cabello who lies even when he passes information to try to make up his imminent departure. What is it that when he arrived at the FESBA in Spain there were 2,000 federated badminton licenses and now there are 30,000? Well no, there were 5,000 and 15 years later there are 8,000, counting the territorial ones and despite the Carolina phenomenon. And that we do not talk about the adventures of Cabello by Latin America, the alleged adulteration of the National League of Clubs and other adventures that reflect something is their low moral stature. Time will have to reveal them, at least while he continues to be the president of a federation and of a sport that wants him out. From FESBA and badminton.

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