The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), Víctor Francos, has confirmed that this Wednesday he has signed the authorization for the elections to take place for the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The representative of the highest sports organization, in a meeting with journalists, has expressed that the electoral process could take place between mid-February and early March 2024.

There would be a possibility that they would be held earlier, as reported at that meeting, and that is for the Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAD) to decide.. This Wednesday, the CSD submitted to this body the complaint presented to it by Miguel Ángel Galán, president of the CENAFE coaching school, in which he accused Pedro Rocha, interim president of the RFEF of “very serious infractions”.

In his opinion, Rocha had to call elections imminently after the resignation of Luis Rubiales according to article 31.8 of the RFEF statutes.. However, the CSD believes that there is no regulation that establishes a deadline for calling elections or that they must be immediate.

The announcement was made at a meeting with journalists for the presentation of the Draft Order that regulates electoral processes in the Spanish Sports Federations.. A project that, according to its processing deadlines, will be binding for all elections that take place in 2024.

This project, which is based on five axes: democratization, good government, equality, inclusion and transparency, was conceived in August 2023, shortly before the controversy over the non-consensual kiss between Luis Rubiales and Jenni Hermoso, but it has been evolving with the circumstances that the Rubiales case has generated.

Anti-rubials

With respect to good governance, for example, people who have causes of incapacity, incompatibility, ineligibility or who have been convicted by a final judgment by the disciplinary bodies of national or international federations or by national sports courts are prevented from being candidates for the General Assembly. or international.

An attempt is also made to limit clientelism in federative positions by eliminating the ex-officio positions of the Assemblies so that all their members must be elected.. In addition, the requirements to be an eligible member or voter are reduced to facilitate access to representative positions.. Now it is enough that they are federated members of legal age who have participated in some competition or activity of their federation.

Equality

One of the substantial parts of this new order, which replaces another from 2015, is the promotion of equality. In this draft, which has already been sent to all interested parties (federations, clubs, establishments, athletes…), the presence of women in federative assemblies is promoted..

A greater presence of women in the federations will be guaranteed according to the highest range of the percentage of female licenses in each sport.. That is, in estates with a number of female licenses between 0 and 10%, 10% of women must be elected; If they are between 10% and 25%, 25% and greater than 25%, this percentage must be 40%.

Finally, this project, which if it follows the normal deadlines must be approved at the end of November, states that the votes must be equal, free, direct and secret. These votes will have to be ratified with a national identity document or passport.

For the CSD, this order wants to democratize and make the federative electoral processes more transparent and put athletes at the center of them, giving them more weight. Without forgetting, of course, the need to put a stop to cases like Rubiales'.