La Liga clubs and the Spanish national team risk being banned from FIFA and UEFA competitions after the government stepped in to oversee the running of the country’s football federation.
RFEF has been under the spotlight since last summer when Luis Rubiales, then president of the organisation, forcibly kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent following the Women’s World Cup final. He was later suspended from all football activity by FIFA for three years and reluctantly gave up his position, having continued to protest his innocence of wrongdoing.
Prosecutors are seeking a two and a half year jail sentence for Rubiales, who also stands accused of trying to coerce Hermoso in the aftermath, with former women’s team head coach Jorge Vilda, director of the men’s national team Albert Luque and RFEF marketing director Ruben Rivera others considered suspects in the coercion case, which they denied.
But the scandals kept coming, with an investigation into alleged corruption at RFEF under Rubiales going public in March when raids were carried out by authorities and multiple people arrested, with allegations centring on corruption, improper management and money laundering. Rubiales was summoned to court on Monday to testify as a witness in the probe. He was initially arrested last month following his return from the Dominican Republic but was released after being detained.
Pedro Rocha, who had been interim president since Rubiales’ departure, was announced as the new RFEF president last Friday. A legal challenge in March had previously called for Rocha to be relieved of his duties for a variety of reasons, including not following the statutes to call elections, receiving the president’s salary and ending the legal challenge to the deal between La Liga and CVC.
Now, one of the new chief’s first acts has been to accept a Supervision, Normalisation and Representation Commission created by the government department of Education, Professional Training and Sports, headed by Spanish football legend Vicente Del Bosque.
Pilar Alegria, spokesperson for the government ministry, explained on Tuesday that the role of the commission is: “Firstly, to represent Spanish football; secondly, to ensure transparency and good performance of the next electoral process that the Federation has to experience after the Olympic Games; and thirdly, successfully facing the challenges that Spanish football has ahead of it: the European Championship, the Olympic Games and the 2030…
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