Minisite Gear

Experience the pulse of the Americas with Minisite Gear: Your go-to destination for digital news and analysis.

Rodríguez Uribes will convene the CSD board of directors to provisionally suspend Pedro Rocha for very serious misconduct |  Soccer |  Sports
Sport

Rodríguez Uribes will convene the CSD board of directors to provisionally suspend Pedro Rocha for very serious misconduct | Soccer | Sports

The president of the Higher Sports Council, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, announced this morning that he will convene in the coming days the board of directors of the organization that he will preside over to put to a vote the provisional suspension due to very serious misconduct by Pedro Rocha and the rest of the team. managing commission of the Royal Spanish Federation (RFEF). “We are in contact with FIFA, we have conveyed our concern and determination to adopt in a coordinated manner all the necessary measures to ensure that a reputational crisis like this does not occur again for the federation. I am going to convene the management committee in the next few days to make a decision following the TAD resolution that describes the actions of the management committee and its president as very serious. There can be no more actions from the federation where its leaders exceed their limits, they must move away from behaviors that embarrass us all. Spanish football deserves that its representatives be guided by the principles of honesty and good governance,” Uribes warned.

Uribes’ intervention occurred in the midst of an atmosphere of division in Spanish football. At the stroke of one in the morning this Tuesday, a dozen territorial presidents opposed to Pedro Rocha assuming the presidency of the Royal Spanish Federation held an emergency meeting electronically. Rocha’s status as an investigator within the framework of Operation Brodie, and his being prosecuted along with the entire managing committee by the Sports Administrative Court (TAD) for a very serious offence, has broken the false unity of Spanish football that was intended to be proclaimed when the The Extremaduran leader presented 107 endorsements last Thursday. “Rocha cannot continue to tarnish the name of the federation, he has to understand it,” says one of the participants in the conclave of opponents of the Extremaduran leader.

Rocha was the only candidate to obtain the 21 endorsements required to present candidacies and on Friday he headed to the throne of Spanish football with his provisional proclamation. Until that same day, Judge Delia Rodrigo, in less than half an hour of testimony before the prosecutor, changed her status from witness to defendant in the case investigating alleged crimes of corruption in business, unfair administration and membership in a criminal organization. The confirmation on Monday of the TAD file against Rocha and the rest of the managing commission for exceeding their functions and for not calling elections in a timely manner precipitated the aforementioned meeting of the opponents. From the conversations came the agreement for a letter to the Higher Sports Council (CSD) and FIFA that was finalized this morning. Among some barons, the name of Emilio García Silvero, director of FIFA’s legal services, also gained strength as a future candidate. Against this plays the fact that his brother has been involved in Operation Brodie as he is responsible for infrastructure at the RFEF and is accused of participating in the procedures for awarding works to the construction company Gruconsa, which is in the center of the plot. investigated by the judge.

Among the barons who opt for the regeneration of the institution (those from the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Madrid, the two Castiles and Valencia) there is also the conviction that Rocha’s presidency would mean the invasion of LaLiga in the management of the federation. Javier Tebas, president of the employers’ association and Rocha’s defender, came forward with a letter in which he appealed against Rocha’s accusation. United Nations quid pro quo because the managing commission chaired by Rocha withdrew the federation from the lawsuit against LaLiga’s agreement with the CVC fund.

There are anti-Rocha barons who also observe in Tebas’ interest in controlling the RFEF the intention of adding an ally in the open war it maintains with Florentino Pérez. Former external commissioner Tomás González Cueto already announced it at the meeting of the managing commission in which it was voted to withdraw the demand. “You have to choose an enemy, Real Madrid or LaLiga,” said the former external legal advisor, also investigated in Operation Brodie.

Rocha’s position is firm regarding not resigning from the federation presidency. Sources close to him are studying filing a complaint for prevarication against the members of the TAD and against the president of the CSD, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes. Complaining against the court or against the CSD is also part of Villar and Luis Rubiales’ strategies to remain in the presidency of Spanish football. These same sources justify that neither Rocha nor the rest of the members of the managing committee exceeded their duties when renewing Luis de la Fuente because there was a clause and the contract expired during the Euro Cup, or that the withdrawal of the lawsuit for the agreement of CVC was made because the legal advice of the RFEF alleged that it was a procedure initiated by the personal war between Rubiales and Tebas.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.