The Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) has upheld the appeal by Miguel Galán, president of the Cenafe coaching school, and has annulled the call for elections for the presidency of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) scheduled for 7 October. The decision of the sports court is another embarrassment for the RFEF. The resolution states that the procedure for Pedro Rocha to be dismissed should have been formalised by the assembly and this did not happen.
Furthermore, the RFEF decided to apply the federation statutes and not the ministerial order that regulates elections in sports federations to call the elections after the disqualification of Pedro Rocha. The TAD has not entered into this matter.
Rocha had appointed María Ángeles García Chaves as deputy vice-president and the former footballer from Cáceres was destined to preside over the federation for a short period of time after her candidacy was the only one to present the endorsements (21 are required and she deposited 88) for the aforementioned elections of October 7, in which the current assembly voted.
Yaye’s mission, the nickname by which the Extremaduran leader is known, was to call elections for the next Olympic period 2025-28 as soon as she was proclaimed president of the RFEF. Once elected, she resigned to be able to preside over the management committee, a key position to control the four-year elections that Rocha plans to run for if she manages to get a judge to grant her the precautionary measures she has requested in order to stop the two-year sanction imposed by the TAD for exceeding her functions as president of the management committee. García Chaves, whose capacity has been highly questioned by many of the barons and also by federation employees, was the ideal solution to execute Rocha’s plan to run if she gets the precautionary measure. Yaye is the wife of Rocha’s former secretary in the Extremaduran territory.
The TAD’s setback forces the entire process to go back to square one. García Chaves, as deputy vice president, is once again acting president, will resign and call for a new electoral process. The latter includes first electing the 140 assembly members who will vote for the president, as established by the ministerial order and firmly endorsed by the TAD.
The elections for the new Olympic cycle must be held before the end of 2024, but it is no longer ruled out that they will be held in 2025. More than a year has passed since Rubiales’ suspension and the federation, led first by Rocha as president of the management committee and then as president, has not yet held the elections.
The decision of the TAD does not reflect very well on the general secretary, Álvaro de Miguel, nor on the legal services of the RFEF. After assuring that things would be done slowly and well, the federation insisted that article 31.8 was the most correct solution. This has not been the case once again. In September it was the other way around. Rocha and the barons opted to apply the ministerial order because they were interested in delaying the process, when the correct thing would have been 31.8 as the TAD also determined. On two occasions, the incorrect regulation has been used to the shame of the RFEF as an institution.
