For the treatment of Francisco Egas, president of the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF), the salary that the coaching staff of the Tricolor will receive and other issues, a meeting of the FEF board of directors was requested for Tuesday, March 3.
Amilcar Mantilla, a member of the Federation, explained the reasons for requesting this meeting with Egas through a private letter, which was spread on social media.
Problems with Egas in the meetings
"It's a little difficult to talk about these problems that we always wanted to be dealt with internally (in the FEF), applying that old saying 'Dirty laundry is washed at home'. Last Monday there was a board meeting in Quito and they presented us with a report from the presidency, in which they showed us some videos of the president's activities, the coaching staff, and Antonio Cordón (sports director); and I spoke up to say that the issues are not being addressed as stated in the current statute. So the president (Francisco Egas) didn't like this and it generated replies from everyone. In the face of disagreements, (Egas) should have shown a normal mood, for me, he didn't show the patience that should be shown and I felt disrespected. After other issues were discussed, the president got up, closed the session, and left without saying goodbye. This generated discontent among the majority of the board members; we also don't want this disagreement to escalate, because we are 29 days away from the start of the qualifiers for Qatar 2022; the Federation, the group of players (who are called up), and the country must be united."
They don't know where Cruyff is
"Among what we have talked about with Jaime Estrada and other board members, the last thing we want is to destabilize the FEF and the president. If they ask us 'where is Mr. Jordi Cruyff right now?', I say: I don't know. If you ask me about the contract with Cruyff and its terms, I say: I don't know. Regarding the issue of the coach's contract, we have received absolutely general information; the president was given authorization to carry out negotiations and agreements, however, the board needs to know the terms of the agreements in this contract and that is what we are asking for. We want to know in what terms the FEF has committed its (financial) resources. General amounts are mentioned, such as $4 million per year, but we need to know where the resources will be obtained and invested, so that is the situation that concerns us and through a communication (letter), which I don't understand how it became public, we want these issues and others to be addressed behind closed doors."
"When we are asked 'how much does a coaching staff make?', a board member has to say 'I don't know'. I don't think it is appropriate for a member of the FEF to not know about these issues. This shouldn't be taken negatively but positively because we want to know how much it will cost, how it is financed, and how it affects the budget, nothing more."
Leaders who do not attend meetings
"The vice president of the FEF (Jaime Estrada), who is in his office every week and in the executive committee meetings, has requested a report on the attendance of the people who make up the committees to the calls. There are some who have never attended and the vice president requested that they be replaced from their positions; everything was going normally until the issue of refereeing was raised, it was found that the president had attended few meetings in 2019 and none this year, it was also requested that he be replaced. The clarification was made that this is not against the people who were leading the committees, but to ensure the regularity of attendance."
Gustavo Silikovich, secretary of the FEF, has not fulfilled
"He should explain why he has not issued the appointments of the new members of the committees; it has no other purpose. He should have done that because the committees, in their new structure, should have started working from this week."
What do they do at board meetings?
"There has already been internal discontent within the FEF over the management style of the president. I think that we must work with a corporate style: the president is not the largest shareholder of a company but like a conductor of an organization, where there are peers at the same level." (D)