The Sports Court annuls the presidential elections recently called by the Football Federation

The Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) has decided to annul the recent call for elections for the presidency that the Football Federation (RFEF) had announced a few weeks ago, According to Iusport and this has been confirmed by elDiario.es, which has had access to the ruling. In this way, it upholds the appeal presented by Miguel Ángel Galán, president of the Cenafe training centre, and forces the elections to be cancelled, considering that Pedro Rocha –disqualified by the TAD itself for overstepping his functions as president of the management committee that replaced Luis Rubiales– has not been conveniently dismissed by agreement of the General Assembly.

The administrative court argues that disqualification does not imply automatic dismissal, that it is a decision that must be taken explicitly, so that elections cannot be called to replace Rocha if Rocha himself has not been legally dismissed.

After this resolution, which plunges the RFEF into chaos once again, another pending issue is whether the next elections should be for a temporary president with the current Assembly (heir to the Rubiales era) or whether the Football Federation should skip that step and call the final elections to a new Assembly – which due to a legal change will be more equal or with less control by the regional presidents – which in turn would elect a new president for four years. The official candidate for the elections that have just been cancelled was Rocha’s right-hand man, whose future is now up in the air.

Sources critical of the current leadership point out that prolonging the process benefits the accused president Pedro Rocha because it gives him time to stand for election again and warn that controlling the timing and governance of the RFEF during the electoral process gives advantages to Rubialism and its heirs.