The Majadahonda judge investigating alleged corruption in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) during the administration of Luis Rubiales has decided to charge the former interim president and candidate to preside over the entity, Pedro Rocha, who was summoned this Friday to testify as a witness.
Legal sources have confirmed that the statement of the person who was until a few days ago president of the Federation’s Management Commission has been suspended after the resignation, at the end of 2023, of Rubiales, with whom he was vice president of the RFEF. The date on which he will appear before the court again under investigation and with a lawyer present is not yet known.
Rocha is the only candidate to preside over the Federation. The Electoral Commission proclaimed his candidacy this Friday after he announced on Thursday that he had presented a total of 107 endorsements out of a possible 138. The plan, according to the electoral regulations of the RFEF, is that a period of two days will now be opened to present appeals and depending on these, Rocha’s candidacy would be proclaimed final on Monday the 15th or Friday the 26th. Miguel Galán, complainant of the corruption case and critic of Rubiales, has confirmed to elDiario.es that he will contest the candidacy.
The candidacies of Benigno Figaldo Moreiras and Pau Codina have also been received, both with zero endorsements. The other candidates, the journalist Carlos Herrera, the lawyer Eva Parera and the former president of Córdoba, Javier González Calvo, did not present their candidacy.
The Higher Sports Council has stated that this situation “aggravates” the crisis in which the Football Federation is immersed. The president of the CSD, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, has contacted FIFA “immediately” and the conversations will continue in the next few hours, as explained by sources from the organization. The Government will “guarantee” the proper development of the “international commitments” of Spanish football, say the same sources, before the organization of the 2030 World Cup.
From witness to investigated
In this way, Rocha appears on the list of those investigated in the separate piece, known as ‘Brody’, that the court opened in parallel to the main case, which revolves around the alleged irregularities committed in the celebration of the Spanish Football Super Cup in Saudi Arabia and in the election of some companies, such as the construction company Gruconsa, for works commissioned by the RFEF. The statement by the former president with Rubiales lasted half an hour and, given the evasion and lack of clear explanations, the judge agreed to change her procedural situation.
In this separate piece, in which entries and searches have already been carried out at the RFEF headquarters and at the homes of several defendants, the judge investigates alleged crimes of corruption in business, unfair administration and money laundering committed between 2018 and 2023. , when Rubiales was in charge of the RFEF.
Rocha is the third to appear before the judge for this separate piece. The other two people – the former external legal advisor of the RFEF Tomás González Cueto and the businessman Ángel González Segura – declared themselves under investigation. It is expected that on April 29, the head of the court will take a statement from Rubiales himself as a defendant.
“Pedro Rocha is the first to be surprised by what happened (…) therefore, he states that he will defend his innocence and honesty until the last moments,” his spokespersons announced in a statement. He also maintains “that he will defend his rights until the end, since we cannot forget that his work at the head of the RFEF Management Commission has been endorsed by the support of more than 75% of the Federation Assembly, including all of the territorial federations,” appealing to the support he has just obtained from the governing body of the federation, the same one that gave Rubiales a standing ovation when he said he would not resign after kissing Jenni Hermoso.
Source: www.eldiario.es
