The RFEF, Spanish football’s governing body, have once again shown their staggering incompetence over the past seven days.

If deciding on La Liga fixture times only two weeks in advance of games wasn’t poor enough, the powers-that-be have shilly-shallied for a full three weeks before, eventually, awarding Camp Nou the honour of staging the 2015 King’s Cup final.

For an organisation from one of European football’s top professional leagues, their conduct has been anything but professional.

And have they scored yet another own goal in settling on the biggest football stadium in Europe?

After all, with Barcelona and Athletic Club de Bilbao contesting this year’s edition, the choice of venue is of obvious benefit to one of this year’s finalists.

Quite clearly, if anyone could be bothered, and not leave things until ‘manana’, then the venue could (and should) have been chosen at the beginning of the season, thus avoiding any questions of favouritism.

Oddly enough, the President of the RFEF, Angel Maria Villar, is an ex-Athletic Bilbao player who served the club with aplomb for over a decade. One would therefore imagine his former club will be none too pleased at his endorsement.

So how did it come to this?

In the first instance, Florentino Perez was allowed to flex his muscles again, turning down the written request of both finalists to play the final at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

On the one hand, such a standpoint appears a little ludicrous. Childish even. However, delve a little deeper and Perez’s refusal seems more understandable.

The literal English translation of his club’s name is Royal Madrid and the royal crown sits proudly atop Madrid’s badge. Neither Barca nor Athletic have a fondness for Spanish royalty and the thought of having either the Catalans or Basques celebrate in his stadium would surely have proved an embarrassment of epic proportions for Perez.

With that in mind, it really shouldn’t have been too difficult to find a suitable alternative.

Valencia’s Mestalla seemed the obvious choice. The two finalists played out the 2009 final there and twice since then Barca have contested El Clasico finals at the venue.

Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon was mentioned in dispatches as was Real Betis’ Benito Villamarin and the Estadio Cartuja in Seville. But a decision was not forthcoming. Eeny, meeny, miny, mo.

None allegedly seemed willing to accede to Villar’s request, perhaps owing to the same reasons Perez refused.

The cacophony of whistles and boos that are inevitably bound to greet the playing of the Spanish national anthem and arrival of King Felipe VI of Spain into the royal box, plus the incessant waving of Basque and Catalan flags is hardly likely to please the monarch.

It does place a different spin on Perez’s own refusal, rather than the suggestion of spite.

Despite this, of course the RFEF would then accede to using Camp Nou. So the royal party will now have to run the gauntlet of 99,000 screaming Catalans and Basques, instead of around half that number anywhere else! It’s debatable that the national anthem will even be heard over such a din.

Barca’s Andres Iniesta isn’t a fan of such disrespect and has called on supporters to show maturity and he’s not alone.

If only the RFEF could have got its act together. Not too much to ask is it?

— The writer is a freelance journalist and Spanish football expert