The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard is searching the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in the framework of an investigation into alleged irregular contracts created in the last five years and linked to the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup. Spain in Saudi Arabia, according to several sources close to the investigations. The agents of the armed institute have arrested several people and, as confirmed by police and legal sources, they have also entered the Granada home of the former president of the federation, Luis Rubiales. The former president is not among those detained, according to these same sources, who specify that he is currently outside Spain.
Police sources also confirm that among those detained are Tomás González Cueto, external legal advisor to the RFEF and former trusted man of Rubiales; Pedro González Segura, director of legal services, and José Javier Giménez, head of Personnel of the RFEF. Among those investigated is Ramón Caravaca, a partner in González Cueto’s office, according to these same sources. On the other hand, the interim president, Pedro Rocha, is not among those investigated.
The Court of First Instance and Instruction 4 of Majadahonda (Madrid) directs this investigation, which opened in 2022, in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. The European Union Agency for Police Cooperation (Europol) also participates in this Wednesday’s deployment. According to investigation sources, the agents have broken into the RFEF headquarters in Las Rozas (Madrid), where documentation is being sought in the Administration, Human Resources and Legal departments. The UCO is reviewing contracts from the time of Rubiales, who became president in 2018. The Spanish Super Cup began to be held in Saudi Arabia in 2022 following a million-dollar agreement signed in 2019 between the then president of the Federation and the Kosmos company. of which Gerard Piqué, former FC Barcelona player, is founder and president.
This Wednesday, the agents’ interventions are taking place in several provinces. The investigations, which have been declared secret, focus on alleged crimes of business corruption, unfair administration and money laundering. According to investigation sources, the search of a total of 11 homes and several judicial requests to different public and private entities is expected. According to these sources, investigators plan to close the operation with seven detainees and five under investigation.
The origin of the case is the complaint filed in May 2022 by Miguel Galán, leader of the National Training Center for Soccer Coaches (CENAFE), on behalf of the Transparency and Democracy in Sports Association. In that complaint, Galán complained once morest both Rubiales and the former Barcelona soccer player Gerard Piqué for the crimes of disloyal administration and corruption in business. In the text, the director of CENAFE accused the first of four alleged irregularities, among them those referring to the contract for the celebration of the Super Cup, which pits the two finalist teams of the Copa del Rey once morest the two first classified teams in the League, which amounted to 264 million euros.
In addition, the complaint focused on three other expenses. First, the alleged hiring of a detective agency through a front company to spy for several days in October 2019 on David Aganzo, president of the AFE, the main football players’ union. The complaint, which included journalistic information, quantified the expense at 11,764 euros. He also accused the former president of the federation of having received, allegedly irregularly, 3,100 euros per month for nine months to rent a 125-square-meter apartment in the center of Madrid, as well as paying with money from the federation for a pleasure trip of six days to New York in October 2018 with his romantic partner.
The fall of Rubiales
Luis Rubiales, who is disqualified by FIFA for a period of three years, left the RFEF leadership last September. He abandoned the presidency following clinging to the position for days, despite the scandal that surrounded him for kissing player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth following winning the Women’s World Cup. Due to these events, the National Court opened an investigation and, following several months of investigation, Judge Francisco de Jorge concluded that there are “solid indications” that the kiss “was not consensual and was a unilateral and surprising initiative” by the then top manager of Spanish football. The Prosecutor’s complaint charged Rubiales with an alleged crime of sexual assault and another of coercion, due to the maneuvers subsequently hatched within the organization to try to get the athlete to go out in public to endorse the president’s actions.
The departure of Rubiales from the federation, which dragged others with him, caused a series of changes and left one of his trusted men, Pedro Rocha, as interim president, who had to call elections. This is what the Higher Sports Council (CSD) urged him to do, which ruled just a few days ago and following a report from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAD). The CSD invites two electoral processes to be held in the coming months to elect a president and renew the assembly. In that sense, Rocha, who is neither detained nor investigated, had planned to dissolve the managing board at four in the followingnoon this Wednesday and call the elections, but the meeting of the managing board has been suspended with the entry of the UCO to the federation.
The national team’s footballers continue their routine: “We have trained so normally”
The searches have coincided with the presence of the senior team at the Ciudad del Fútbol residence. But it took them a while to find out, as Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya said: “We got up, we had breakfast, we trained so normally… I didn’t realize what was happening,” he said in a press conference held. while the agents were still in the office building.
The activity surrounding the selection of Luis de la Fuente continued with apparent normality while the Civil Guard reviewed documents. The press entered the federation facilities like any other day, although supervised by a somewhat larger contingent of private security personnel than on other occasions. They monitored that there were no deviations of personnel towards the office building, they notified by radio of the people who passed by each point so that they would not be missing at the next and they made sure that the facilities were abandoned when the press activities ended. “You cannot record video. If it’s over, it has to come out,” they said.
Among the group of footballers, the morning passed through the normal course of breakfast, preparations, training, shower and attention to the media. The only trace of the activity ordered by the court, which included the anticipation of several arrests, were the jokes of some player with the federation staff: “Eat something now, lest it be…”. Little information circulated among the employees who took care of the equipment regarding what was happening in the offices. From a distance, a dozen workers might be seen on the terrace of the cafeteria, in the air of a sunny spring morning.
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