Justice Overturns Rocha, Paving Way for Convicted Louzán to Lead Spanish Football Federation | TodoAlicante

Justice definitively removed Pedro Rocha from his position this Thursday. The successor to Luis Rubiales will not be able to run in the elections for the presidency of the Spanish Football Federation (FEF), opening the path for Rafael Louzán, who is currently serving a seven-year ban from public office for misconduct during his tenure as president of the Pontevedra Provincial Council, pending a Supreme Court ruling.

After the National Court rejected Rocha’s request to suspend the two-year disqualification imposed by the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), regional presidents confirmed Louzán, also supported by LaLiga, as the consensus candidate. However, the current president of the Galician Federation would not be able to hold any position in FIFA or UEFA if elected as the head of the FEF, with elections scheduled for December 16.

With Rocha now out of the electoral race, Louzán is expected to easily secure the 21 endorsements required to be declared a candidate for the FEF presidency. Given that the criminal sentence imposed on the Galician leader in 2022 is not yet final, Louzán could become the top representative of Spanish football. He and the regional leaders who have chosen him argue that the crime for which he was convicted was not committed within the sports domain. However, critics acknowledge that his election would further tarnish a federation already stained by the global scandal of the ‘Rubiales case’ and alleged irregularities in the ‘Supercopa case’.

Louzán was sentenced two and a half years ago by the Provincial Court of Pontevedra for granting a company a subsidy of 86,311 euros for improvements to the Moraña football field, most of which had already been completed, and his appeal is still pending before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, since his sentence is not yet enforceable, the FEF leaders have opened the door for him to run for a presidency where, in principle, no other federation representative would be eligible, and so far, only businessman Juanma Morales has publicly expressed his intention to run from outside.

Another Blow to the Image

The FEF statutes require, among the conditions for joining the federation’s bodies, not being disqualified from holding public office, without specifying whether the sentences must be final. In any case, Louzán’s arrival at the FEF presidential seat, which would exclude him from FIFA and UEFA meetings when the country hosts the 2030 World Cup alongside Portugal and Morocco, would be another blow to Spain’s reputational image. And always pending the Supreme Court, which, in the event of an unfavorable ruling against Louzán, would require new elections and the selection of another president.

Fourteen months after Luis Rubiales was forced to resign for his non-consensual kiss to Jenni Hermoso and subsequently replaced by his protégé, also rejected by the Government, it is now official that Rocha will not be able to seek re-election. However, it was only yesterday that the National Court made public that it had dismissed the appeal filed by the Extremaduran leader to suspend the disqualification decreed by the TAD for overstepping his functions when he was president of the FEF’s managing committee.