It all started with Gerard Piqué. The investigation into alleged irregular contracts in the Federation is based on the agreement signed in 2019 between the former player's company, Kosmos, and the then federation president, Luis Rubiales, to bring the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, initially until 2025 and The link was later extended until 2029. What was sold as a success, a new format for the tournament with four teams and an annual income of 40 million, a total of 400 million in ten years, became another focus of controversy for the top leader of the RFEF in April 2022, when the ins and outs of the negotiation were revealed.
“Let's see, Rubi, if it's a money issue. If they would go for eight (millions), hell, man, you pay eight to Madrid and eight to Barça. To the other two and one. There are 19 and you keep the Federation six kilos. Before you have nothing left, you keep six kilos and we put pressure on Saudi Arabia, we tell them that Madrid is not going, and maybe we will take one or two more sticks from them," Piqué, a Barça player at that time, told Rubiales the March 7, 2019 in one of the audios that El Confidencial published three years later.
Six months after those words, the Arab business was a fact. “Geri, congratulations. It is after 12 (hours) and the agreement with Saudi Arabia is now firm. Thank you for everything, I am here for whatever you need,” Rubiales told the former defender on September 14, 2019 in another audio document. The contract also stipulates “the total obligation” to pay “a third party”, in this case Kosmos, commissions of 4 million annually, and 40 in total until 2029. “They have said that they are going to pay you. And damn, I don't think it makes sense that they don't pay us. The message I sent out is 'the president will go if they pay us all.' If they leave us out, we have no guarantee that they will pay us. I would like you to support us. They have to pay us all or they won't leave,” Piqué explained to the federation leader on December 13, 2019, three weeks before the first edition of the Super Cup in Arabia.
The audios caused Miguel Ángel Galán to file a complaint against Rubiales' management in the Court of First Instance No. 4 of Majadahonda. The president of the National Football Coaches Training Center (Cenafe) has already gone to court to uncover the corruption that ended the presidency of Ángel María Villar in the RFEF. The complaint was admitted in May 2022 for “an alleged crime of unfair administration and corruption in business.” In turn, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office opened proceedings to clarify the facts.
Forced by the CSD to give explanations, Rubiales defended at the RFEF Assembly on May 30, 2022 that “the Federation has not paid, nor does it pay, nor will it pay a single euro for this operation.” “They (Kosmos) are told clearly that if there are commissions they will have them with Saudi Arabia,” added the president, in addition to ensuring that “it is all a lie.” “It's throwing shit for the sake of throwing shit. It's not that I'm hiding, it's that I feel proud," said Piqué, who voluntarily submitted to Anti-Corruption ten invoices of 800,000 euros charged for "consulting services." The legality of the federation agreement with Kosmos and how the salary of Rubiales, who contractually received a percentage of each Federation income, remains to be discerned. But Piqué and Arabia are just one more chapter in the turbulent mandate of Rubiales, disqualified by FIFA after his non-consensual kiss with Jenni Hermoso.
