The Ecuadorian Volleyball Federation is intervened and its entire board of directors is dismissed

The Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture intervened in the Ecuadorian Volleyball Federation, dismissed its board of directors, and appointed an interventor who assumes the same functions and competencies as the president and legal representative of the entity. The measure is contained in Resolution No. MINEDEC-VD-2026-0263-R, signed on October 15, 2026, by the Vice Minister of Sport, Roberto Xavier Ibáñez Romero, and published in Official Registry No. 401 on Friday, October 30, 2026.

The applied authority is based on Article 30, numeral 15, of the Organic Law of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, which empowers the governing body to exceptionally intervene in sports organizations that receive public funds, and Article 230, numeral 7, of the same legal body, which establishes as grounds the failure to submit annual internal audit reports to the governing body. The case was processed under number PRO-INT-DAD-2026-002-FEV, with the delegated authority contained in Ministerial Agreement No. MINEDEC-MINEDEC-2026-00041-A.

The Ecuadorian Volleyball Federation was legally approved through Agreement No. 23760, dated December 18, 1980, published in Official Registry No. 354 on January 9, 1981. Its last board of directors was registered by the Directorate of Sports Affairs through Official Letter No. MD-DAD-2025-1459-O, dated June 2, 2025.

The grounds: the 2025 internal audit report

The resolution maintains that the federation receives public resources from the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture, both for investment expenditure and current expenditure. This point was credited by Memorandum No. MINEDEC-DDAR-2026-3206-M, issued by the Directorate of High Performance Sport at the request of the Directorate of Sports Affairs.

The specific non-compliance was verified by the Directorate of Sport Regulation and Evaluation through Memorandum No. MINEDEC-DRED-2026-0314-M, dated October 2, 2026: the federation submitted the 2024 internal audit report, but not the one corresponding to 2025.

The procedure began with Official Letter No. MINEDEC-DAD-2026-3411-O, dated October 2, 2026, which opened a five-day evidentiary period. On October 12, 2026, the then-president Johnny Molina López presented his defense; the resolving document concludes that the certifications, financial statements, and statutes provided do not prove the submission of the required report.

Who assumes the leadership of the federation

The appointed interventor is Mr. Cristhian Oswaldo Valdiviezo Fuentes, ID 1311965477, for a term of 180 days to remedy the grounds for intervention, in accordance with Article 206 of the General Regulations of the Organic Law of Sport. His powers include:

• Exercise the legal, judicial, and extrajudicial representation of the intervened organization.
• Appoint an administrator, accountant, treasurer, secretary, and other personnel as may be necessary.
• Convene and lead general assemblies, as well as call for elections and participate in the electoral processes of the entities to which the federation is affiliated.
• Monitor the use of funds in accordance with budgets and annual planning, and control accounts, budget execution, and financial statements.
• Inspect and manage real estate assets and adopt preventive measures for their conservation.
• Timely alert the governing body of situations that could affect athletes or lead the organization to inactivity or new grounds for sanction.
• Upload the documentation generated in the ministry’s Intervention System and deliver a reasoned final report.

Validity, notifications, and termination of the intervention

The resolution provides for the notification of the instrument to fifteen instances, including the undersecretariats of Sports System Services, Physical Activity and Sport, various general coordinations and national directorates, the former president of the federation, and the designated interventor. It also orders the High Performance Sports Directorate and the Sports Supervision and Defense Directorate to monitor the interventor until the delivery of their final report.

The intervention is extinguished when the functioning of the body is restored, and a new board is elected and registered with the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture; at that moment, the position of the interventor shall cease to have effect. The instrument governs from its signing, and it is noted that the administrative route remains open for claims by interested parties.

The decision directly affects federated sports: the federation temporarily loses its statutory leadership, its affiliates and athletes fall under the administration of an interventor, and the electoral process passes into the hands of that official. Furthermore, the case sets a precedent regarding the weight the governing body gives to documentary non-compliance of internal audits as sufficient grounds to remove a sports board in office.

Source: Official Registry, No. 401, October 30, 2026, Section I, pp. 29-30 (official reference: Resolution No. MINEDEC-VD-2026-0263-R).