Thursday, November 28, 2024, 6:18 p.m.
The ordinary justice system definitively struck down Pedro Rocha this Thursday. The replacement for Luis Rubiales will not be able to stand in the elections for the presidency of the Spanish Football Federation (FEF), where the path now opens for Rafael Louzán, sentenced to seven years of disqualification from holding public office for prevaricating when he was president of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra and even at the expense of the Supreme Court.
After the National Court rejected the precautionary measure requested by Rocha to suspend the two-year disqualification imposed on him by the Sports Administrative Court (TAD), the presidents of the territorial teams confirmed this Thursday Louzán, also supported by LaLiga, as a consensus candidate. The current president of the Galician Federation could not, however, hold any position in FIFA or UEFA if he were elected top leader of the FEF, whose elections are scheduled for December 16.
With Rocha now out of the electoral race, Louzán will have no problem obtaining the 21 endorsements required to be proclaimed a candidate for the presidency of the FEF. Given that the criminal sentence imposed on the Galician leader in 2022 is not yet final, Louzán could therefore become the highest representative of Spanish football. He and the territorial barons who have chosen him to make the jump to the FEF defend that the crime for which he was convicted was not committed in the field of sport. However, his detractors recognize that his election would further dirty a federative body with a clientelistic system already sufficiently stained by the global scandal of the ‘Rubiales case’ and the alleged irregularities of the ‘Super Cup case’.
Louzán was convicted two and a half years ago by the Provincial Court of Pontevedra for granting a company a subsidy of 86,311 euros for works to improve the Moraña soccer field that for the most part had already been carried out, and his appeal has yet to be heard. resolved by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, since his sentence is not executive, the barons of the FEF have opened the door for him to opt for a presidency in which, in principle, no other federative representative would have a place and to which until now, from outside , only businessman Juanma Morales has made public his intention to run.
Another blow to the image
The FEF statutes impose, among the requirements to be part of the federative bodies, not being disqualified from holding public office, without specifying whether the sentences must be final or not. In any case, the arrival of Louzán to the presidential chair of the FEF, who would be left out of the FIFA and UEFA meetings when the country will organize the 2030 World Cup along with Portugal and Morocco, would be another blow to Spain’s reputational image. . And always pending the Supreme Court, which in the event of a ruling unfavorable to Louzán would force elections to be called again and another president to be elected.
Fourteen months after the forced resignation of Luis Rubiales for his non-consensual kiss with Jenni Hermoso and that the dolphin from Granada, also repudiated by the Government, subsequently took over his position, what is now official is that Rocha will not be able to opt to re-election. However, we had to wait until yesterday for the National Court to make public that it had rejected the appeal presented by the Extremaduran leader to leave in suspension the disqualification decreed by the TAD, for exceeding his duties when he was president of the managing committee. of the FEF.
