RFEF — Real Federación Española de Fútbol

What is the RFEF?

The Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF), the Royal Spanish Football Federation, is the national association for football in Spain. It states its mission as “organizar, reglamentar, proteger y desarrollar el fútbol y sus especialidades en el ámbito estatal” — to organise, regulate, protect and develop football and its specialities at state level — while promoting healthy habits, social integration and equality through the game.^[3] UEFA records that the federation received the official royal seal of approval in 1913.^[1]

What does the RFEF govern or do?

The RFEF selects Spain’s national teams: its site carries men’s and women’s selections across age groups, together with futsal and beach football teams.^[6] It describes its work as serving every group in the game — clubs, coaches, referees, officials, players and supporters — through training and innovation programmes, and it maintains federal committees, among them a technical committee of referees.^[3][6] Professional football has its own body: the RFEF’s site lists the Liga de Fútbol Profesional under its leagues and commissions.^[6]

When was the RFEF founded and where is it based?

UEFA gives 1909 as the year of the RFEF’s foundation and 1913 as the year it received the royal seal of approval, when, by UEFA’s account, Spanish football had 25 officially registered clubs.^[1]

The federation’s central headquarters is the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas, near Madrid, which it states was inaugurated on 12 May 2003. The 12-hectare site houses the federation’s central offices, a hotel-residence, four pitches and a national-team museum, and the RFEF describes it as the usual base of the senior men’s and women’s national teams.^[5]

How is the RFEF recognised?

FIFA. FIFA’s directory of member associations lists the Spanish Football Association under the confederation UEFA, with Rafael Louzán as president and rfef.es as its website.^[2] UEFA records that Spain was admitted to FIFA in 1914.^[1]

UEFA. UEFA’s profile of the association gives its UEFA affiliation as 1954 and states that Spain was a founder member of the European governing body that year.^[1]

What does the RFEF organise?

The RFEF’s competition pages cover the Copa de S.M. el Rey, the men’s cup, along with the Primera División Femenina, the Liga Prime Futsal and a range of youth and regional divisions.^[6] UEFA dates the Copa del Rey to 1903, when it was initiated by King Alfonso XIII, and records that Spain’s first unified national league was played in February 1929 by ten teams.^[1] Its pages also carry the men’s Primera División, LaLiga, and list the Liga de Fútbol Profesional among its leagues and commissions.^[6]

Who are its members?

The RFEF lists 19 territorial federations, whose presidents sit on the Comisión de Presidentes de Federaciones de Ámbito Autonómico, which the federation describes as an advisory and coordinating body for promoting football across the country. The federations named are Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Ceuta, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia, Melilla, Navarre, La Rioja, Valencia and the Basque Country (as listed in October 2026).^[4]