Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 12:53
Although a resolution from the Court is still pending, Pedro Rocha will not be able to run in the elections for the presidency of the Spanish Football Federation (FEF) that will be held on December 16. The Central Administrative Litigation Court number 2 of the National Court once again denied Rocha the precautionary suspension of the two-year disqualification imposed on him by the Sports Administrative Court (TAD) and the Extremaduran leader will therefore not opt for re-election.
Pedro Rocha, the dolphin of Luis Rubiales, was the consensus candidate of the presidents of the majority of the territorial ones to return to the position that he had to abandon for exceeding his duties as top leader of the FEF manager. Once the former president of the FEF has been removed from the electoral race, from now on the candidates who would join businessman Juanma Morales will begin to apply, who has already made his candidacy public, although he must gather the 21 required endorsements.
Next Monday the composition of the FEF general assembly will be defined, which must look for a new candidate in record time. The deadline to submit candidacies for the presidency expires on December 2. As happened last September, the same judge who rejected the first precautionary measure requested by Rocha has again rejected his request, this time with the elections already called.
The judge has relied this time on reasons different from those two and a half months ago, when he argued that the elections had not been called and, therefore, no harm was caused to the plaintiff. On this occasion, he invokes the general interest of Spain, whose image, according to his ruling, would be affected to organize the 2030 World Cup.
“We understand that the lesser evil, allow us the colloquial expression, consists in this case in safeguarding the public interest and third parties, compared to that of the actor who could be, in any case, duly compensated for the damages suffered,” the order concludes. of the judge to whom Iusport has had access. “If he is successful in his claim, the annulment of the disqualification when he can no longer present his candidacy could cause him moral, professional and economic damages that could well be compensated economically,” points out the magistrate.
The disqualification imposed in July on Pedro Rocha by the highest court of sports justice in Spain was due, when he was president of the FEF managing commission, to the dismissal of the then general secretary, Andreu Camps, a measure that according to the TAD he could not adopt the Cáceres alone, but this body in a collegiate manner. Rocha defended that such a decision was made at the express direction of the Higher Sports Council (CSD) when the FEF was shaken by a deep crisis after the scandal over Luis Rubiales’ kiss to Jenni Hermoso.
Indicted for the Super Cup
Despite continuing at the expense of the appeal that Rocha presented to the Appeals chamber of the National Court on the first of the orders that denied the precautionary measure for the first time, Rubiales’s successor hardly has any hope that justice will rule in his favor, and at least before December 2, the deadline for him to present his candidacy. Pedro Rocha is also accused in ‘operation Brody’, for alleged irregularities in the contracts signed by the FEF for the European Super Cup dispute in Saudi Arabia. The former president of the federative body was president of the economic commission of the FEF during the mandate of Luis Rubiales, in which the remodeling of the La Cartuja stadium was also awarded to the company Gruconsa, in which the brother of the director of legal services works. of the FEF.
The Government tried to put an end to Rocha before the Euro Cup won by Spain, but was unable to get the man from Cáceres to be present at the championship held in Germany or at the Paris Olympic Games. “It is unthinkable that the representative of Spanish football for the Euro Cup or for the Olympic Games could be a person investigated in a criminal case and under suspicion by the Administrative Court of Sports for alleged disciplinary infractions classified as very serious,” the president of the CSD, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes. It took seven months for Rocha to be sentenced.
