The Spanish government created a special committee on Thursday to oversee the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) as an investigation into a multi-million corruption scheme is underway.
The Commission for Supervision, Normalization and and Representation will be in charge of operations at the RFEF until new elections for federation leaders take place, according to National Sports Council (CSD). The move was made “in response to the crisis in the organization and in defense of the general interest of Spain,” the CSD said in a statement, per Reuters.
The corruption allegations date back to the tenure of Luis Rubiales, the disgraced ex-RFEF president who led the federation from 2018 until 2013, when he was ousted for forcibly kissing player Jenni Hermoso during the Women’s World Cup trophy ceremony. Rubiales has been banned by FIFA since the event and faces further criminal punishment in Spain.
The case is centered around Rubiales’ updates to the Spanish Super Cup in 2020 when it went from a two-team competition to a four-team tournament and began to be staged in Saudi Arabia. The deal to move the Super Cup to the Middle East was reportedly worth $42 million at the time, per the Associated Press.
