This Monday Pedro Rocha should have been elected as president of the RFEF, but the process has been postponed due to the current mess in Spanish soccer with the ‘Brody case’ and the imputation last week of Rocha, who had replaced the former president -also imputed- Luis Rubiales. All this fuss does not seem to have an end in the short term, nor to satisfy the vast majority. The territorial federations, those who vote and decide who will be their new president, want someone to continue the work done in recent years (regardless of the image and clean up if there are cases of corruption) and therefore had chosen Rocha; while society -including the Government- demands a radical change (the image and the possible case of corruption are more worrying than the work done in recent years).
Justice will rule on the corruption issue, meanwhile, the territorial federations, the ones that vote for the president, are generally happy with the results of these last years. The budget for these has been multiplied by three or four -depending on the case-, the coffers of all the regional federations have been cleaned up, a good part of the facilities that were leased have been acquired and a pandemic in which countless amateur soccer clubs from different parts of the Spanish geography could have disappeared has been saved with flying colors. Now the RFEF earns some 440 million euros, compared to 120 million five years ago, and a large part of this money is invested in non-professional soccer, the mainstay of professional soccer. A trophy such as the Copa del Rey has been revitalized, as well as the Federation Cup, the Spanish Super Cup (beyond the morale of this model), and we are trying to promote futsal, beach soccer…
In addition, on the pitch, the Spanish senior women’s national team is the current World Champion and the men’s national team is the current Nations League champion. And in the lower categories, last summer the RFEF achieved full qualification for the respective European Championships for all its national teams in both the men’s and women’s categories. Spain is the current U-20 world champion (twice), U-17 world champion, U-19 European champion and U-17 European runner-up.
AN ATTEMPT BY A SPANISH JOURNALIST
Against these numbers and arguments fights the street and who, from outside, wanted to run for the RFEF elections this year. Only one famous Spanish journalist, Carlos Herrera, tried to stand against Pedro Rocha, the only candidate who finally managed to gather enough endorsements to run. The journalist, in the end, did not have the support of the voters. The street and the government, meanwhile, watched in disbelief as Rocha – right-hand man of the investigated Luis Rubiales – was going to be president for the next four years… until last Friday when the justice system also charged him and everything has been paralyzed.
The image is damaged, although Spanish soccer (the one that votes) generally wants to continue along the line taken so far… but without any more scandal splashing the shield of a body that has been damaged since this summer (kiss Jenni Hermoso).
We will see how the trial ends, the last of its kind affecting Spanish soccer for alleged corruption was Operation Oikos, which has recently been shelved without any detainees and with several footballers unnecessarily stained, such as Borja Fernandez (former Real Madrid, Getafe, Mallorca, Deportivo de La Coruña or Valladolid, among others). The former president of FC Barcelona, Sandro Rosell, was also in jail for almost two years and was finally acquitted…
Spanish soccer is patiently waiting to see how this case ends in the run-up to the men’s European Championship and the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, the street, at a different pace, also gives its opinion and fires with talk shows, press and bar conversations. Justice watches, listens and investigates. FIFA and its 2030 World Cup are also waiting.
