Pedro Rocha is serving a two-year ban imposed by the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) for exceeding his functions when he chaired the management committee that replaced Luis Rubiales. He is also under investigation in the framework of Operation Brodie for alleged irregular contracts related to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) which he has chaired since last May. Before, he had been president of the economic commission in some of the alleged crimes such as the addenda to the contracts to take the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia that allowed Gerard Piqué to collect a commission of around 20 million euros. Rocha told Judge Delia Rodrigo that he did not know anything when his signature appeared on the approval minutes, so the magistrate changed his status from witness to defendant in just half an hour of testimony.
With all this legal burden on his shoulders, despite his disqualification and the reputational damage caused, the leader from Extremadura intends to hold on to his position and return to it as soon as possible by requesting a new precautionary measure to stop his sanction. Last Thursday, his first attempt was already denied.
The RFEF board of directors, meeting telematically, unanimously approved this Friday the application of point 31.8 of the federation statutes by which elections will be held shortly with the current assembly in which the elected person will assume the presidency for a few days and call elections for a period of four years in which the 140 assembly members are first elected and then they vote for the president who must govern the RFEF during the next Olympic cycle 2024-2028. This route, which would have avoided all the swarm that delayed the elections until May, was ruled out by Pedro Rocha in September 2023. At that time, he was still following the guidelines of Luis Rubiales and his two main ideologues, the general secretary Andreu Camps, and the external commissioner Tomás González Cueto. Both defended in a meeting with the presidents of the territorial federations that it was convenient to apply the Ministerial Order regulating the elections in the sports federations, which contemplated a single election with a new assembly that would elect a president for four years. At that time, blondism Rocha was already interested in prolonging his stay in the Spanish footballing splendour as long as possible, for which he received the 700,000 euros salary he inherited from his predecessor in office. Now he receives half of that, after some barons reproached him for accepting Rubiales’ salary. At the July assembly he reduced his emoluments as a gesture of good will and cosmetics, but there is no news that he has intended to make his new remuneration retroactive and return the difference to the federation’s coffers.
According to a baron present on the board of directors, Rocha intends to stand for election as soon as they are called. With this move he will be able to request a precautionary measure to stop his disqualification for having fired Andreu Camps in a single-handed manner without taking into account the rest of the members of the board.
The same judge who denied the first injunction will be the one to decide whether to grant it now. Among other things, he reasoned in his ruling that, as the elections had not been called, the injunction was not appropriate. Next Monday, the board of directors is expected to meet and finalize the steps to begin the electoral process. This will be the moment when Pedro Rocha can request another injunction. Another option he can choose is to appeal the first denial of injunctions before the National Court, but this has a duration of between four and six months.
There were discrepancies over whether the correct thing to do was to apply the aforementioned article 31.8 of the federation statutes or the aforementioned Ministerial Order. Federation sources assure that now the first option is considered more protective in order to avoid another sanction from the TAD. A year ago that did not matter because what was involved was delaying the process despite the CSD’s haste to speed it up. Now they do not look favourably on Rocha trying to remain in the chair.
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