Florentino Perez & Joan Laporta resign from RFEF management committee

The presidents of Real Madrid and Barcelona – Florentino Perez and Joan Laporta – to have resigned from the management committee at the Spanish football federation (RFEF).

Neither of Spanish football’s two biggest club chiefs had quit the RFEF board during the presidency of Luis Rubiales – even after the disgraced official was facing huge public scrutiny for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips after the Women's World Cup final, which she did not consent to.

Having seen Spain's entire playing squad and coaching staff (except crony Jorge Vilda) resign in protest, the worldwide backlash and public support for Hermoso, pressure from the Spanish government and a burgeoning criminal investigation, Rubiales somewhat reluctantly resigned as RFEF president in September but still refused to accept wrongdoing for his actions.

At one stage, RFEF even tried to hit its own self-destruct button in order to protect him by requesting expulsion from UEFA on grounds of government interference, seemingly prepared to derail the entirety of Spanish football for the sake of one man. It didn’t work and eventually RFEF, as an entity, was left to issue a grovelling apology to ‘the world of football’ as it attempted to pick up the pieces.

Rubiales, initially banned by FIFA for 90 days while a disciplinary process was undertaken, was eventually slapped with a three-year suspension from all football.

RFEF has been functioning with just an interim president, Pedro Rocha, for the past two months.

Presidential elections for the next term, 2024 until 2028, were always supposed to take place next year, but that election may be the source of the issue. A complaint was filed against Rocha and the management committee – including Perez and Laporta – in September,