The CAS suspends 15 presidents of the Territorial Federations

The proposal of the investigating judge to sanction the territorial presidents who signed in 2017 the letter of support to the former president of the Spanish Football Federation Ángel María Villar with two months of suspension, has prospered. according to IUSPORT. The former president of the Extremadura Federation, Pedro Rocha, is excluded from this penalty, because, according to the instructor, in his case the infraction has prescribed.

The suspension, therefore, affects the presidents of the Territorial Federations who once signed the letter of support for Villar: Asturias, Cantabria, Catalonia, Ceuta, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, La Rioja, Melilla, Murcia, Basque Country, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, Navarra, Madrid and the Canary Islands.

The offense committed consists of signing said leaders a letter with the title of ‘Letter of support to Mr. Ángel María Villar’ and as subtitle ’14 years of harassment and persecution ’ and which appears published on the website of some of the Territorial Federations. These facts represent the alleged commission of an offense provided for in article 76.2 a) of Law 10/1990, of October 15, on Sports, in relation to article 12.4 of Order ECD / 2764/2015.

On November 2, 2018, the then president of the Higher Sports Council, María José Rienda Contreras, had a written entry in the TAD, attaching the letter and documentation presented at said institution by Miguel Galán, national coach affiliated with the Royal Spanish Federation of Football (RFEF) and included in the electoral roll as a voter and eligible for the elections called by the RFEF in February 2018, in which it urged the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the presidents of territorial federations of the same. Based on this, The CAS agreed to initiate a file and the appointment of Instructor, although after the resignation of Rosario de Vicente as a member of the TAD, he was replaced as instructor by Koldo Irurzun, who in turn was replaced by the current instructor, after Irurzun ceased in February from 2020 in the Tribunal.

In the present case, in the opinion of the instructor, “When determining the sanction to impose, four circumstances must be taken into account. First, the nature of the breach of the files, which is manifested in the lack of the duty of neutrality that article 14.2 of Order ECD / 2764/2015 imposes on all federative bodies; Secondly, advertising the letter. Being published, among others, on the website of the Asturian and Cantabrian Football Federation on February 23, 2017; in third place, the non-withdrawal of the letter of support after the resolution of the CAS of April 27, 2017, when verifying that on January 24, 2019, the repeated letter could be found at the link: https: /www.asturfutbol.es / carta depoyo -ad-angel-maria-villar (as stated in the letter from the President of the Higher Sports Council dated February 14, 2019) and, fourthly, lto bad faith of the files when denying a fact that they recognized before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid and before the Supreme Court “.