(Madrid) Spanish justice announced Thursday that it was investigating former FC Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué for his role in the relocation of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, which would earn him, via his company Kosmos, four million euros per year.
The judge in charge of the case for corruption surrounding irregular contracts concluded by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) estimated in an order sent to AFP that this annual commission to Kosmos was potentially fraudulent.
While still a Barça player, Gerard Piqué served in 2019 as an intermediary via his company in the agreement to relocate the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia for some 40 million euros per year.
This contract is at the heart of this investigation which is shaking up Spanish football, where the former president of the RFEF Luis Rubiales, and his successor Pedro Rocha, are both indicted.
It concerns alleged “irregularities” in contracts signed by the RFEF over the last five years, and gave rise to numerous searches in March at the headquarters of the Federation and even in the homes of Luis Rubiales.
Already threatened with two and a half years in prison for sexual assault on world champion Jenni Hermoso after the 2023 World Cup final, Rubiales had denied having received money “irregularly” in this other procedure.
Recordings of conversations between Luis Rubiales and Gerard Piqué released in 2022 by the press revealed that the two men had indeed mentioned commissions of several million euros.
This affair, which implicates several leaders and former collaborators of the RFEF, pushed the Spanish government to put the body under supervision “in the interest” of the country, future co-organizer of the 2030 World Cup with Morocco and Portugal.
Gérard Piqué, one of the most successful Spanish players in history, became a businessman even before the end of his career, with his company Kosmos, organizer of the new version of the Davis Cup, but also the Kings League, an amateur 7-a-side football championship broadcast on the Twitch platform and supposed to revolutionize the sport.