Spanish police carried out searches at the headquarters of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) as well as the home of its former president Luis Rubiales as part of an investigation into alleged corruption, we learned on Wednesday from judicial sources.
Other addresses were targeted during this operation carried out by the Civil Guard.
According to the Spanish press, the police acted as part of a judicial investigation into the contract concluded to relocate the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Since 2020, the Saudi kingdom has hosted the semi-finals and the final of this competition for some 40 million euros per year under the terms of an agreement in which the Kosmos company of former FC Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué served as ‘intermediate.
The intervention at the headquarters of the Spanish Federation in Las Rozas, in the suburbs of Madrid, is part of an investigation into “alleged criminal acts of corruption and money laundering”, judicial sources said. to the AFP.
The police also intervened in Granada at the home of Luis Rubiales, who is outside Spain.
Aged 46, the former president of the RFEF resigned in September after being suspended from all functions in football for having forcibly kissed world champion Jenni Hermoso last summer, shortly after the coronation of La Roja in Australia.
“I am absolutely surprised by all this,” he told a journalist from the Spanish television channel Telecinco, adding that he has not left the Dominican Republic for more than a month.
Records
In total, eleven separate locations were targeted by searches, including the La Cartuja stadium in Seville, where the Copa del Rey final will be held on April 6.
Four people were arrested, including the RFEF’s external legal advisor, Tomas Gonzalez Cueto, and two leaders of the Federation, these judicial sources said.
In a press release, the Federation indicated that it had “offered its full collaboration” to the police forces and the justice system.
She adds “having called for total transparency within the body that governs Spanish football”.
“As such, it hopes that the current investigation will take place without hindrance until its conclusion,” continues the RFEF, expressing its “deep concern”.
Spanish justice has been interested in the Super Cup since audio recordings of conversations between Rubiales and Pique leaked in 2022 in which the two men speak of commissions amounting to several million euros.
Rubiales as well as Piqué have always defended the legality of this agreement.
These searches took place in the middle of a gathering of the Spanish national team, which is currently training for its two preparation matches for Euro-2024 against Colombia (Friday) then against Brazil (Tuesday).