Spanish clubs risk being excluded from UEFA competitions

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) continues to grapple with chaos. A new president has yet to be appointed, and the sole candidate has been temporarily suspended from office due to ongoing corruption allegations.

Earlier, there were reports that the Spanish government planned to intervene in the activities of the football federation and help resolve the problem. However, this idea was not well received by UEFA. According to Diario AS, they may prohibit Spanish clubs and the national team from participating in tournaments under UEFA's auspices during the period of government intervention in the affairs of the football federation. A similar situation occurred with Russia after the start of the war in Ukraine.

FIFA has also voiced support for UEFA. The two organizations have released a joint statement:

“FIFA and UEFA are closely monitoring the situation surrounding the RFEF [Royal Spanish Football Federation] with great concern. FIFA and UEFA will request additional information to assess to what extent the appointment of the so-called 'Supervision, Normalization, and Representation Commission' may affect RFEF's duty to manage its affairs independently and without undue government interference. ‘At this time, we have no further comments’”.

If UEFA were to make such a decision, Spanish clubs would be unable to participate in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. In turn, the Spanish national team would be excluded from participating in the Nations League and the European Championship.