Spanish Football Federation to call elections imminently after latest legal scandals

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) are set to call elections next week, after FIFA and UEFA demanded that they explain ‘with speed’ the recent legal cases affecting current and former members of the Federation.

The managing committee headed by interim president Pedro Rocha will call elections, as per Diario AS, and is unsure over whether to put himself forward as a candidate. Rocha has been in charge since Rubiales resigned late last year, and was supposed to have called elections within the following six months, but was due to extend that period until after the Euros in Germany.

However the recent scandals have forced them into quicker action. Last week the RFEF headquarters were raided by police in connection with a potential money laundering and corruption investigation, with seven arrest warrants made, and 12 people under investigation, including Rubiales. ‘Irregular’ contracts over the last five years are being investigated.

Meanwhile this week Rubiales, former marketing director Ruben Rivera, men’s Sporting Director Albert Luque, and former women’s manager (now at Morocco) Jorge Vilda have all been accused formally of coercion, and in Rubiales’ case sexual assault. Luque is still at the RFEF, and has been suspended – he is facing a potential sentence of 1.5 years in jail. Meanwhile the RFEF ordered a full audit in order to evaluate all of the contrats worked during Rubiales’ tenure.

Rocha is also the subject of a legal complaint in an attempt to remove him from office. Rubiales hand-picked Rubiales, and there is a sense that there has been little in the way of turnover following the Jenni Hermoso sacking.

Image via JORGE GUERRERO / AFP

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