Part of the telephone conversations recorded by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard with Tomás González Cueto in the framework of Operation Brodie, in which he is accused, are revealing regarding the figure of Pedro Rocha, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) disqualified for two years by the Sports Administrative Court (TAD). In a call on Thursday, March 19, 2024, just one day before the operation was launched in which the Civil Guard searched the federation headquarters, González Cueto, then external legal advisor to the RFEF, told Jorge Mowinckel, federative director of international relations, his opinion about Rocha in relation to the fact that Luis Rubiales appointed him as his successor before resigning as federative president on September 10. “Tomás tells him that Rocha is lazy, that he can’t give a speech, that’s why he [González Cueto] I told Luis [Rubiales] that I should have put Bandrés [Eduardo, tesorero de la RFEF]”, reflects the UCO report. In that same conversation it is also revealed that the interlocutors make it a rule to call each other on WhatsApp and that they use encrypted phones to avoid intercepting communications. Mowinckel, alluding to the fact that he does not have data on his cell phone, apologizes to González Cueto for having called him through the conventional telephone line.
González Cueto is not the first to question Rocha’s ability to preside over the federation. There are barons who also assume that the Extremaduran is not the ideal president, but they accept him as a man of consensus. Along these lines, Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga and one of its great defenders, has already publicly assured that “there are a thousand better than Rocha”, whom he also called Luis Rubiales’ “vase”.
In another intervened conversation, this time with Fernando Molinero, general director of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), González Cueto asserts: “Rocha is very peculiar because he can commit to anything with the person in front of him as long as they let him don’t worry”. The calls between González Cueto and Molinero are frequent and border on the compromising due to the position held by the latter and the context in which they take place, in the midst of the RFEF electoral process and decision-making that corresponds to the TAD, a body dependent on the CSD. In the aforementioned call, Molinero, in addition to venturing that Rocha will not be suspended by the TAD, expressed himself like this: “There is a small thing that worries me. I put it to you with all sincerity, the only thing that worries me is if they are questioning you internally, because you told us to go to one and now they are telling us to go to two. Because I am like that, someone else would say ‘well he will know’. “That really worries me.” Next, González Cueto conveys to Molinero that, indeed, the federation is questioning him, but he does not believe that this is the case with Rocha or the territorial barons with weight in the federation.
The former external commissioner of the RFEF also lets Molinero know that Rocha wants to go after “the crazy one” Miguel Galán, the president of the Cenafe coaching school who has put the Extremaduran leader on the ropes with his complaints to the TAD and in the Majadahonda courts. The CSD frames Molinero’s conversations with González Cueto in the context of professional dialogues. The latter has been summoned to testify on October 3.
Days later, as a result of being arrested and charged in Operation Brodie, Rocha dispensed with the services of González Cueto, who through his GC Legal office billed hundreds of thousands of euros to the federation. Rocha himself also ended up being investigated in the case after testifying as a witness. Judge Delia Rodrigo charged him after stating in the statement that he knew nothing about the addendums to the contracts to bring the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia that allowed Gerard Piqué to collect commissions of around 20 million euros. Rocha’s signature appears in one of the minutes, which led the magistrate to change his status from witness to being investigated.
Rocha, despite being sanctioned and investigated, intends to run in the quadrennial elections that must be held before the end of 2024, as established by law, although some barons already predict that the elections may be held in February 2025. The Rocha’s strategy to be able to present his candidacy involves a precautionary measure that paralyzes his sanction and which was already denied in the first instance. If he does not get it, in another of the conversations recorded between González Cueto and Molinero, the former assures that Rocha opts for the Andalusian baron Pablo Lozano as his replacement.
