President Pedro Rocha began to see his star fall when he appeared as a witness before the Majadahonda courts on April 12 as part of Operation Brody, which is investigating corruption within the Football Federation (RFEF).
Just eight months earlier, he had been crowned as a dauphin by Luis Rubiales as leader of the RFEF and applauded as a natural successor by the other 18 territorial presidents of Spanish football: “I was the only vice-president and I already told them that if they did not agree with the decision that I was president of the management company, which they told me, because it is a complication and I have to take care of my own business,” Rocha himself told the prosecutor in his judicial statement, to which elDiario had access and from which he entered as a witness and left as the accused. No surprise: “The 18, go tell me, it must be you, Pedro,” he said.
Rocha took on Rubiales’ salary of 675,000 euros a year – or what amounts to the same, 56,000 euros a month – and became head of a provisional management body of the Federation that had to immediately call presidential elections for the remaining term of Rubiales’ mandate, one year, which he did not do.
Instead, he led the RFEF for eight months and made decisions for which he was not competent, according to the Administrative Court of Sports (TAD), which is why he was sanctioned, disqualified for two years and left his position this week, after the decision of the Administrative Court of Sports (TAD). Justice did not take into account the precautionary measure that he presented to try to stay.
He went from rubbing shoulders with the king in the European Cup box in June to not going to the Olympics. He didn’t even chair the July assembly and stopped signing ordinances and documents before the summer.
A year after the Rubiales scandal, the RFEF is once again in the hands of a leader, the territorial presidents – part of the Rubiales system – continue to govern, elections for a new Assembly and a new president for four years have not yet been called, but the Federation is currently governed by the same people that Rubiales supported.
Despite the sporting achievements, the management of Spanish football navigates between judicial referrals, scandals and a clamour for the interim situation to end and for there to be a real regeneration that, so far, has stagnated and depends largely on how they are managed. .the next elections by the current team.
This Monday, a new leader will be installed, the interim power that is responsible for leading the RFEF when there is no president. The Board of Directors decided on Friday that instead of directly calling elections for the total renewal of the Federation (Assembly and Presidency), it would first call elections for the presidency with the current Assembly, which lengthens the electoral deadlines and the deadlines to reach elections. a renewal beyond blondism.
In fact, Rocha’s departure for legal reasons does not mean he cannot return. Federal sources add that Rocha can appeal and request a precautionary measure when the elections are officially called, as it seems he intends to do.
Furthermore, the fact that the Federation has taken the long electoral path – with a stop for a new president to replace the manager – benefits it because if the justice has a certain deadline and agrees with it, it could be in time to present itself, assuming that it no longer has an internal competitor at that time.
The winner of the next elections will be the one who will lead the final electoral process, that is, who will have in hand the electoral calls for the Assembly and the presidency for four years, the deadlines, the censuses and the controls.
The process that comes
The Assembly is an essential body of the Federation. The current one comes from the Rubiales era, it is the one who applauded when he refused to resign, it is made up of 140 people (only six of them are women) and the current electoral system means that it was very uncritical because the assembly members arrived already filtered by the presidents of the territorial elections: as in the general elections, there are constituencies managed by these presidents, who received bonuses of 100,000 euros per year each from Rubiales as a “professionalization allowance”, an initiative to end up paying these sums and ensuring their support.
This body is key because it is the one that elects the president, approves the accounts and validates the presidential work, in addition to being the one that has the power to dismiss its leader: precisely for this reason Rubiales left when he wanted, without anyone from the outside being able to force him to do so because the Assembly did not withdraw its support.
It is this Assembly that will elect Pedro Rocha’s replacement, which is why well-informed sources of the Federation point out that it is very likely that another official candidate from the Rubiales or Rocha era will emerge and that continuity will continue until the next elections, the definitive ones.
Precisely with the aim of preventing another Rubiales case from happening again, the Higher Sports Council (CSD) – the government body responsible for sports federations – published a new decree at the beginning of the year with new rules of the game: the future Assembly, which must be elected before the end of the year, must have an equality quota so that there are more women, includes the women’s football team and considerably reduces the power of regional elections in filtering candidates.
The government has also issued an order that gives the possibility of skipping the intermediate step of appointing a president in an interim case like the one currently facing the Football Association, which has stuck to its statutes instead of this government rule, although the latter is more lax and would avoid an additional electoral process.
The “logical” thing, they say in the Federation, is not to repeat the precedent of Rocha and not to risk that the coach makes decisions, which resulted in Rocha’s disqualification. That is why they call prior elections to elect a legitimate president, they affirm.
New President
This new president will call elections for a new Assembly which, once elected according to the new rules, will in turn elect a new president of the RFEF for the next four years, thus closing the process.
From here, Spanish football can regain some stability. Whether the derision of a Federation that has chained three presidents dismissed with pending legal cases (Villar, Rubiales and now Rocha) or whether there is a renewal depends largely on who leads and controls the times.
In fact, until now it has been impossible to impose a regeneration from the outside despite the fact that there are internal voices (women’s football, players’ associations…) that demand and have publicly demanded an end to verticality, endogamy and obscurantism.
Rubiales chose his successor, Rocha, and he chose his: in June, he appointed his trusted person, María Ángeles García, as assistant vice-president, with the aim of keeping her in charge in the event of his suspension. No one could force Rubiales to leave his position. Nor could Rocha. Only a court decision could remove him, just as only FIFA could remove the first one.
Furthermore, Rocha ran for president, having recently been indicted in the ongoing corruption case in Majadahonda. Not only was no one able to stop him, but the current Assembly gave him the necessary approval to proclaim himself the sole winner. He went from being the president of the management company to being the president, regardless of the fact that he was under investigation by the courts.
There was no criticism at the RFEF headquarters or scandal in Las Rozas. This, despite the fact that the government even threatened to involve FIFA, which did not budge and let it continue despite the accusations and complaints it already had at the TAD. To Rocha’s credit, he had among his supporters the commanders of the Federation, the territorial presidents and the support of Javier Tebas, president of La Liga.
Nor did anything happen within the RFEF ecosystem when the Civil Guard showed up at its offices to empty hard drives because it was not collaborating with justice. From that moment on, as the only measures, several managers who had continued to work since the Rubiales scandal were sent home, despite being involved in the corruption cases and being investigated for the cause of the kiss with Jenni Hermoso.
Once the mandate of Rubiales and Rocha ends, it remains to be seen whether the hydra continues to live or whether the person and structure that replaces them in the long and complex electoral process also puts an end to Rubialism and its way of doing the most active and powerful sports federation in Spain.
