The two paths of the Federation after the resignation of Luis Rubiales
The surprise resignation of Luis Rubiales this Sunday changes the panorama of the scandal that has put his name, and that of Spanish football, on the global stage. Not much changes for the protagonist, who was already suspended by FIFA and knew first-hand that this temporary suspension was going to become a firm sanction of several years, in the same way that he knew that the judicial process undertaken by the Prosecutor's Office after the Jenni Hermoso's complaint is an unstoppable procedure. But his departure does represent a change for the future of the Federation.
Everything is in the hands of Pedro Rocha, the man whom Rubiales hand-picked (the day before the famous Assembly of August 25, he dismissed all the vice presidents except him, knowing that it is the vice president who assumes the direction of the Federation in the absence of the president). Rocha, as president of the Federation, has two paths before him. One is what the federative statutes establish and another is what the Government wants, which is already looking for legal loopholes to impose it.
The chain that ties Jenni Hermoso to the resigned Rubiales
Option 1: Call for elections
The first is to call elections immediately, which is what the Statutes establish, and which is what the Federation itself announced at dawn.. These elections would be held with the same Assembly that elected Rubiales in 2020 (there was no opposition candidate) and the elected president could be in office until after the Paris Olympics next year.. This is explained in article 31.8 of the Statutes of the Federation: “If the President ceases for reasons other than the conclusion of his term, the Board of Directors will become the Management Commission and call elections to fill the position; whoever is elected will occupy the position. charge for time equal to the time remaining to be served by the replaced one.”. In this way, Rocha does not seem to be the consensus candidate among the current members of the Assembly, and Salvador Gomar, the president of the Valencian assembly, emerges with more strength.
Option 2: extend the mandate until 2024
However, it does not seem that the Government is going to be happy with that option.. The Executive is more in favor of the second, which is to prolong in time the mandate of the Management Board (legal means are already being sought to be able to do this) that is currently chaired by Rocha himself and, arriving at the Olympic year, 2024, convene elections. It would, then, be with a new Assembly, and candidates who are not now in the Federation could present themselves.
To choose this path, which would put an end to the power of those who now rule, permission must be requested from the Higher Sports Council (CSD) through a reasoned request. In an interview last night on Cadena Cope, the president of the CSD, Víctor Francos, made it clear: “If they ask us for permission to hold elections on January 1, we will give it to them.” But that conflicts with the statutes.
The Government wants that, when the candidacy for the 2030 World Cup has to be officially presented, in the first quarter of next year, a new president has already been elected, who will be the one to lead that candidacy for four years.