The Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 4 of Majadahonda, in Madrid, has admitted the lawsuit against the president of the Spanish soccer federation, Luis Rubiales, and against Gerard Piqué for the alleged crimes of corruption in business and unfair administration after the Filtered audios about the negotiation to transfer the headquarters of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
In the car, it has been decided to open preliminary proceedings as a result of the complaint filed a month ago against Rubiales and the Barça footballer and owner of the Kosmos company by the leader of the National Training Center for Football Coaches (CENAFE), Miguel Ángel Galán, whom the magistrate summons to deposit a bail of 10,000 euros if he wants to act as a popular accusation in the case.
The judge of Majadahonda points out in the order issued on Monday that the facts denounced by Galán "have the characteristics of an alleged crime of unfair administration and corruption in business", although she agrees to open preliminary proceedings since "the nature and circumstances of such events nor the people who have participated in them".
At the same time, the magistrate indicates that she is sending the proceedings to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office so that it can be informed as to whether the court is competent to continue with the investigation. Precisely, Anticorruption opened proceedings in May for alleged irregularities in the management of Rubiales at the head of the RFEF and from, among other issues, the contract for the Spanish Super Cup to be played in Saudi Arabia with the mediation of Piqué.
In the complaint, Galán points to the commissions charged by the RFEF and Piqué's company for playing the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. And about Rubiales he pays attention to a monthly help for his house, a trip to New York, alleged recordings of government ministers and the alleged commissioning of detectives to investigate union leaders.
A complaint that was added to the one already presented, before the courts of Plaza de Castilla, by the Manos Limpias union. Most likely, once Galán's case has been admitted for processing, the Prosecutor's Office will now have to refer what it has investigated to the Majadahonda court.
These alleged facts have had, according to Galán's complaint, an "unprecedented" repercussion in the media that has reached the Courts for the Government to help "clarify the facts." "The alarm and social interest is evident," he stresses. Galán asked the court that the "urgent" summons of both Rubiales and Piqué correspond in turn so that they declare as investigated and incorporate into the investigation the proceedings opened by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office after Galán's first complaint, registered in April and which already has with various extensions.
According to the complaint, Rubiales and Piqué concocted a "plan to profit" with the transfer of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia in exchange for 24 million euros, "stubbornly" hiding the commissions, which "they disguised documents pretending that the payment was produced by a third party". "The defendants began their plan in unity of interest, collaborating with each other in such a way that sometimes it was not easy to decide which of them was the president and which was the apparent commission agent," he mentions.
In the letter, Galán affirms that the objective of Rubiales and Piqué, current captain of the Barcelona Football Club, was "to do business", although they did not know "what", "how" or "where": "What they did know and wanted was to do it together", highlights the complainant.
Rubiales "did not want" the 24 million euros that Piqué was going to collect to mediate in the operation to appear in "any document". For Galán, one with the other "had colluded" in order to "hide" the commission, "making it opaque not only to Spanish society, but also to all the internal organs" of the RFEF "that could prevent them from commissioning of their actions", as if it did not exist.
"In relations in which the position of President of the RFEF had been duly exercised, one would have to ask what could be the reason for planning tricks with an active player so that a competition is played in Madrid or Barcelona or another stadium or for the President to take care of improving the income of a club (Barcelona) to the detriment of its administrator, the RFEF", he points out, given the option that the tournament was initially played in Barcelona.
Another of the points included in the complaint is the alleged commission from the Football Federation to a detective agency to "spy" on the president of the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE), David Aganzo, a job that would have been paid "through of an instrumental society. "The follow-ups cost 11,764 euros, but they were not paid" by the RFEF, "but by a company dedicated to real estate development that belongs to an external lawyer and that regularly collects from the" federal body, he says.
Galán assures that if Rubiales commissioned David Aganzo, one of the union leaders, to spy for his "own benefit", through an "intermediate company or screen" to hide the "obvious lack of legitimacy in the invasion of his privacy" and in charge RFEF funds, these are "very serious" and "criminal" behaviors.
The third of the reasons that make up the complaint is if the president of the RFEF pocketed in an "irregular" way a housing aid of 3,100 euros per month for "at least" nine months. While the fourth and last point deals with a "holiday" trip by Rubiales to New York "unduly" paid for by the Federation, "taking advantage of his power" and camouflaged as "for work." For these reasons, Galán believes that Rubiales would have incurred in unfair administration due to the loss of money that would have caused the RFEF, while extending the alleged corruption in business to the footballer and businessman Piqué.
