Rafael Louzán, the new president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), yesterday met his new board of directors for the first time at the Las Rozas Football City, in which Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga since 2013. The Federation and LaLiga have been bitter enemies, almost always fighting over competition issues, and Tebas’ relations with Ángel María Villar and Luis Rubiales were terrible, filled with personal disqualifications.
The board of directors appointed by Louzán integrates all levels of Spanish football. For the first time it is made up of 50% men and women. Additionally, there are 25 percent independent members. David Aganzo, president of the football players’ union (AFE), is also present; Beatriz Álvarez, president of the Women’s League; the former skier María José Rienda, who chaired the Higher Sports Council (CSD) between 2018 and 2020, and a former FC Barcelona soccer player, Miquel Ángel Nadal, uncle of the tennis player Rafael Nadal.
The High Court will decide the first week of February whether or not to maintain Louzán’s disqualification
According to the Federation’s own statement issued at the end of the session, “the objective of this meeting will be social and sustainable commitment, enhancing the RFEF brand and institutional prestige, transparency and good governance or training and new strategic plans. , among other matters of interest.”
Louzán’s presidency was born with an important sword of Damocles hanging over his head. The Galician leader is disqualified for prevarication (he granted a subsidy of 83,000 euros for a sports center in Moraña that was already finished). The Pontevedra Court sentenced him in 2002 to two years in prison and seven years of disqualification from public office, and the Supreme Court must rule in the first week of February to decide whether or not to lift his disqualification.
Beyond this point, Louzán also knows that he is not a president the Government likes, and the Higher Sports Council is studying these days whether to challenge his appointment before the Administrative Court of Sports (TAD), which already disqualified previous presidents, such as Ángel María Villar, Luis Rubiales or Pedro Rocha. Everything seems to indicate that he will follow that path.
The entry of Tebas into the board of directors is not surprising, because the president of LaLiga has already shown himself delighted with both Pedro Rocha and Rafael Louzán, who is still a man of the previous president and the candidate of the territorial ones. Rocha was not granted precautionary measures.
It so happens that Louzán is the first candidate to win with the support of Javier Tebas, who had always bet on the losing horse. In 2004 he did it for Gerardo González Otero instead of Ángel María Villar, and in 2018 he ordered the clubs to vote for Juan Luis Larrea before Luis Rubiales. This time Tebas got it right.
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