MADRID, March 3: The Spanish soccer federation will delay its elections to please FIFA, defying government pressure to hold the vote before the Beijing Olympics.

The federation’s general assembly voted Monday by 115 votes to 23, with one abstention, to hold the election in the final quarter of 2008 but before Nov. 26, when the current mandate expires.

Federation president Angel Maria Villar said there was never any doubt about following FIFA’s rules, which say the association’s elected members must serve their full terms.

“This is an electoral year and we will honor this,” Villar, who has been president for 20 years, was quoted as saying by news agency Efe. “The federation, its president and its board wants to honor current laws not the development of these laws.”

The Spanish government’s senior sports body, the Higher Sports Council, has ordered all national sporting federations that failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics to hold elections before the games start in August.

FIFA, however, is against any government interference and had threatened to suspend the Spanish national team and clubs from international competitions if the national body did not postpone the election.

Last Friday, a court backed the Higher Sports Council and rejected the federation’s bid to delay the elections.

World soccer’s governing body suspended Greece for 48 hours last July in a similar case. FIFA lifted its suspension after the Greek parliament amended a law regulating professional sports organizations. Albania is also under threat of suspension for similar reasons.—AP