According to a report published by El Mundo, Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), was planning to pay Gerard Piqué €24m for the Spanish Super Cup to be held in Saudi Arabia.
The report explains that according to the Intervención General del Estado (IGAE), the president of the RFEF had a direct relationship with the former Barcelona player.
El Mundo has had access to the IGAE report for the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which states that Piqué was associated with the RFEF, and adds that “a letter of assignment was drawn up to cover the commissions agreed by the former FC Barcelona centre-back”.
It also states that Rubiales and Saudi Arabia tried to hide the payment of the €24m (€4m per edition of the Super Cup) commission to the player. The document states that “Saudi Arabia assumed the payment (to Piqué) on behalf of the RFEF”.
The RFEF denies the information that appeared in El Mundo about the alleged plan created by Rubiales. “It is absolutely false,” the federation said in a statement reported by AS.
The Federation denies the accusations and warns that these are a new exercise of “manipulation” by the newspaper El Mundo with the “sole objective of confusing public opinion and discrediting the RFEF and its president”. It also stresses that the “author of the report issues a personal opinion without the slightest legal justification and without any evidence”.
The RFEF added: “It is absolutely false that the RFEF and its president had prepared a plan to pay commissions to the company Kosmos by the public company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the occasion of the Super Cup”.
GSFN | Kieran Quaile
