The Mossos d’Esquadra searched the headquarters of the Catalan Football Federation (FCF) early in the morning, located on Sicilia Street in Barcelona. The case, which is under the secrecy of the proceedings, is linked to alleged fraud in the last elections to the federal entity, according to police sources. The Catalan police have not allowed the workers access to the building, where they still continue, without further details of the operation being revealed in which no arrests are initially expected. The case is supervised by the Investigative Court 2 of Sabadell, which investigates crimes of falsification in a public document, in a private document and unfair administration.
The elections in the Federation were held on May 22, 2022 and Joan Soteras, the current leader, emerged the winner, beating Àlex Talavera by 26 votes. Juanjo Isern and Pep Palacios also appeared, who were more outcast. According to data from the entity, 1,041 assembly members participated, 85% of the census.
Three days after the elections, Talavera challenged the results to the Catalan Sports Court for “irregularities in the census.” According to their complaint, the FCF electoral board modified the census two days before the elections and the irregularly delegated vote was considered valid. The Catalan Sports Court (TCE) accepted the appeal in January 2023 and ordered the elections to be repeated. The judicial body considered that there were documented irregularities at several voting points.
The new elections were held on February 13, 2023 and Soteras won again with 58% of the support and 168 votes difference over Juanjo Isern, who recruited part of Talavera’s candidacy. He could not finally show up. Two months after Soteras’ victory, Isern and Talavera contested the elections again in April. “It is the largest case of corruption in the history of Catalan sport,” Isern denounced on the Ser channel. The TCE, however, dismissed the appeal and appointed Soteras as definitive president.
In addition to the FCF’s power struggle, the body has been involved in corruption cases. At the end of 2023, the entity suffered the theft of confidential documentation linked to the ‘Soule case’, the judicial operation that investigates federal corruption plots and that led to the fall of the former president of the Spanish Federation (RFEF) in 2017, Ángel María Villar, from the post. The Catalan entity assured that the thieves knew “perfectly” the facilities and the “layout of the offices and who works in them.” The Mossos d’Esquadra opened an investigation.
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