The judge of Madrid, investigating “possible illegalities” in contracts of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), such as the one that transferred the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, has agreed to indict the former soccer player and businessman Gerard Pique in a big twist in the case.
The ex-Barcelona star would have agreed an annual commission of $4.3 million for that agreement, so Magistrate Delia Rodrigo issued an order on Thursday, May 30 in which she agrees to expand the investigation in front of 15 people.
Not only is Pique named but also the President of the RFEF, Pedro Rocha as well as the company, Gruconsa, which carried out the works of the Seville stadium of La Cartuja,
Several of its directors; the former legal adviser of the RFEF Tomas Gonzalez Cueto, the former director of legal services Pedro Manuel Gonzalez Segura and his brother Angel Ignacio, who worked for Gruconsa have also been summoned.
The Spanish Super Cup: “Possible illegalities” in RFEF contracts
The case, which is also directed against the scandalous Luis Rubiales, will investigate whether crimes of corruption in business or unfair administration were committed around various RFEF contracts when he was in charge, without ruling out possible money laundering.
One of those contracts is the one that brought the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia by virtue of several agreements signed in 2019, and extended a year later, between the RFEF and the Saudi company Sela, in which a “success bonus” was set in favor of a “third party agent”.
Pique, representing the company Kosmos, who was not identified and “is revealed” in another document so the judge highlights a clause in the contract by which the RFEF “tried to guarantee” the payment of 4 million euros per year ($4.3m USD) in commission in favour of Kosmos.
It also stresses that, at the time of the signing, Pique was still a player for Barcelona. The Catalonian team that participated in the Spanish Super Cup that year, reaching the semifinal against Atletico Madrid.
Rocha, in his capacity as economic vice-president at the time, would then be responsible for either direct intervention in the contract with Saudi Arabia, or the commission that he chaired to analyse the extensions.
Corporate network of senior RFEF officials close to Rubiales
The magistrate outlines the main lines of investigation of the case in her order, such as the corporate structure in which “management staff of the RFEF”, employees and businessmen close to Rubiales participated.
She also detects a “possible triangulation of funds” between the Federation, the company Dismantec and Gruconsa, regarding which she has observed some “striking and interesting” income.
According to the theory set out in the order, during the presidency of Rubiales, the RFEF would have hired the construction company “allegedly in exchange” for it making payments to Dismantec, managed by the former president’s friend, Nene.
Between 2020 and 2022, the RFEF has declared payments to Gruconsa for 2.6 million euros ($2.8m USD). Almost all of it was paid in 2021.