Louzán: "It is time to move from the urgent to the important. Spanish football faces great challenges ahead"

The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Rafael Louzán, closed the RFEF General Assembly for July 2025 with a speech focused on the challenges facing Spanish football. Beyond a review of the seven months since he was elected as president, Louzán announced before the representatives of Spanish football the relocation of the Spanish National Team Museum to a building in central Madrid, where it will serve as a benchmark for global football, as well as the upcoming launch of the Spanish football audiovisual platform.

In addition, during his speech, the president highlighted the holding of two football congresses: one for youth football and another for women's football.

Earlier, the RFEF General Assembly approved the financial accounts for the 2024 fiscal year, which presented a record figure in terms of revenue for the Spanish football’s governing body, thus demonstrating the financial strength of the RFEF.

On another note, the competition calendar for the 2025/2026 season was approved, and the Assembly was informed of the updates in the various official RFEF competitions for the campaign. Separately, various initiatives were approved to develop improvements in the different federation venues and facilities, as well as several regulatory and statutory modifications.

In his final report before the Assembly, President Rafael Louzán made reference to the fifteen-year anniversary of the 2010 World Cup triumph in South Africa, which served as the opening theme in the Ciudad del Fútbol, before offering, by way of an epilogue, a preview of the challenges the RFEF are set to face in the upcoming season:

“These days we are remembering the 15 years since Spain’s victory at the World Cup in South Africa. We are moving into a new era, and I am grateful for the willingness of all parties to work together. This includes, for example, the referees, with whom we strive for excellence. Together, we must reflect on the path we need to take so we can walk it together: clubs, players, referees, directors… We are the most important league in the world, and we must be so in every sense. We will try to make the right decisions.

We have not come here just for the sake of it, but to do things that improve on everything that has existed until now. We must do it together.

I thank everyone for their willingness—let's see what this coming season holds for us. We are proud to represent Spanish football. The progress should be positive, although I personally prefer to move faster. Little by little, we will be making decisions for the good of football. We owe it to all of you, to the clubs, to everyone, so that this sport remains the one that most unites this country.

We will continue to improve the competition system after listening to all the members who have shared their concerns with us.

We must thank our in-house team for their good work. We must also offer credibility to the stakeholders in football who want to stand with us. These ideas show us the way forward.

In terms of competition, Spain is used to winning, and winning is very difficult. We must acknowledge the regional federations for their work with our players. Behind successes like the Under-19 women's team, we hope there lies a future senior team. We hope to achieve success at the Women’s Euros in Switzerland, where we have been wonderfully received.

The public tender process for an OTT service has been launched, and we hope to make good progress with an audiovisual platform to serve Spanish football's needs. We must do all we can to bring visibility to our lower divisions throughout the country. I hope next season we can have a platform to display the results of all our official competitions.

Our organisation needs to keep advancing technologically. We are working on it, and we want to become faster and more efficient in everything, to be a body at the cutting edge of technology so that all football stakeholders have all the tools they need.

We must move from the urgent to the important. Now is the time to restore prestige before international bodies, with UEFA and FIFA. I believe this is what is needed, just as with all institutions in the world of sport. We have informed FIFA and UEFA that we are ready to organise sporting events. We are capable of it—whenever we have been entrusted with the responsibility, Spain has delivered. We must nurture the organisational axis of World Cups alongside the United States and Saudi Arabia, so that it serves us in terms of coordination and helps all of us host the best possible tournaments.

We are working with all the regional bodies, holding extensive discussions to reach consensus on how to work for the benefit of everyone, from the RFEF and with the federations and the needs of the regional ones. We want to respond to their demands.

We reaffirm our willingness to listen. We must listen to everyone in order to reflect and find the best path,” concluded the president, thus bringing the June 2025 General Assembly of the RFEF to a close.