/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/EYOXLSONQREYDBUC2FSULHHVBY.jpg "The RFEF will have to hold elections and renew the assembly before electing a president in a second election | Soccer | Sports")
Six months following the resignation of Luis Rubiales, the imbroglio of the elections to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) must be resolved with two elections. A report from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAD) calls for holding elections for the presidency and renewing the assembly before calling a second election for the presidency and to undertake the required renewal of the institution that governs Spanish football.
Thus, first there will be elections with the current federative assembly, the body that elects the president. Presumably, following the Paris Games another election will be held, already with a new assembly, for the 2024-2028 Olympic cycle. Now it must be the board of directors of the Higher Sports Council (CSD) that approves what, for its president José Manuel Uribes, seems the most hygienic and legal solution. Especially following said TAD report did not accept the electoral regulations prepared by the RFEF managing commission, chaired by Pedro Rocha. The aforementioned regulations only contemplated a single election with a new assembly and, furthermore, the regulations prevented the managing committee from calling them.
The double vote to which Spanish football will be subjected is contrary to the initial idea that both Rocha and Víctor Francos, then president of the CSD, had. Both intended to hold a single presidential election voted on by a new assembly as soon as possible. To do this, Rocha requested the electoral advance to the first half of the year and it was granted following a report from the TAD.
That six months following Rubiales’ resignation, it is now the decision to hold two elections reveals the deficiency with which the matter has been managed. From the beginning, Rocha knew that it was illegal to call elections with a new assembly. This is established in point 31.8 of the federative statutes and this is what Salvador Gomar, the president of the Valencian territorial organization, defended on September 15, five days following Rubiales resigned. Gomar stated in the minutes of the meeting in which all the territorial representatives participated that the correct thing was for presidential elections to be called with the current assembly and for the winner to call the elections corresponding to the new Olympic cycle. This is what the basketball federation did following the resignation of Jorge Garbajosa, who had resigned to be able to take up the position of president of FIBA Europe.
At that meeting of the territorial barons and, also according to the minutes, the then general secretary Andreu Camps and Rubiales’s external legal advisor and right-hand man, Tomás González Cueto, who still provides his services to the RFEF, advised once morest holding two elections as established by the federative statutes. This was aimed at ensuring that Rocha, appointed by Rubiales as his successor before he resigned, remained in office as long as possible.
Then, Miguel Galán, president of the Cenafe coaching school, filed a complaint with the CSD to forward it to the TAD and demand that the federation’s statutes be applied and that Rocha be sanctioned for not calling the elections. The sequence of events reveals that both the federation and the CSD were aware that the scenario of a single election was contrary to the law.
The result of not having called elections shortly following Rubiales’ resignation is that Rocha has spent six months presiding over the managing committee, an unusual fact in the history of Spanish sport despite the fact that the regulations do not establish a specific period for this. It is taken for granted that a manager should be there for the minimum amount of time possible. This time has been used by the Extremaduran leader to gain the reputation of the man who has brought peace to football, mainly for having reduced tensions with LaLiga and Javier Tebas. He is delighted with Rocha, who has made gestures such as withdrawing the federation from the lawsuit once morest the employers for the agreement with CVC, leaving Real Madrid and Athletic alone, once Barcelona had also withdrawn in June.
With gestures such as withdrawing from the CVC lawsuit, Rocha has not only tried to forge that profile of a man of consensus, he has also tried to shake off the label of being a puppet of Rubiales, who designated him as his successor before resigning. Until that happened, Rocha was interim president of the RFEF and at that time he announced that he would serve out the remainder of Rubiales’ term and that he would not run followingwards. Once the Granada leader resigned from his position, the man from Extremadura became president of the management company. As such, he was authorized to call elections with the current assembly, but not those that correspond to the four-year Olympic cycle with new assembly members. Now, if he decides to run, as everything seems to indicate, he is the great favorite to win the elections.
Rocha has had time to work on his candidacy from within, which puts him at a clear advantage over other candidates such as the aforementioned Salvador Gomar, Eva Parera, daughter of the historic leader of FC Barcelona, Antón Parera, or the journalist Carlos Herrera.
