Judge investigates whether Rubiales received land in Saudi Arabia as payment for Super Bowl contract | Football | Kinds of sports

Judge Delia Rodrigo, who is investigating alleged irregularities at the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) during the presidency of Luis Rubiales, points in a new direction in her latest resolution. In a ruling issued this Monday in which she imposed precautionary measures against Rubiales, the judge raises suspicions that the alleged commissions he allegedly received for a million-dollar contract to celebrate the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia may not have been money, but Likewise.” In particular, in the “transfer of land” in this country “for the subsequent management of the hotel business.”

The suspicion is based on one of the wiretaps made in January last year, included in the summary. In it, the two defendants are considering a project to build a football stadium, sports city and hotel in Saudi Arabia on a 400,000 square meter plot of land together with local authorities and other businessmen. In that conversation, interlocutors claim that Rubiales, who no longer served as president of the federation after resigning in September 2023 due to allegations of kissing soccer player Jennifer Hermoso without consent, would be given a secondary role, but there would be “money for everyone.” , if business went forward. The former federation president, accused of an alleged crime of business corruption and other unfair administrative offences, insisted during his statement before a judge on Monday that there were no irregularities in his administration and that he did not collect commissions.

The order, which imposed monthly court appearances on Rubiales and restricted travel from Spain, recalls that RFEF was given a “guarantor position” in the Super Cup contract, so that Kosmos Football SL, whose founder and president is a former Barcelona football club and national team player, Spain’s Gerard Pique received the so-called “success bonus”. We are talking about three million euros that the Saudi company SELA Company Sport, which organized the event, has agreed to pay Kosmos every year if it is among the teams participating in the competition, which includes the two finalists of the Copa del Rey and the top two finalists. Real Madrid and Barça played in the league every year. In this sense, he emphasizes that this bonus was “an essential obligation of the agreement, reserving to (the federation) the right to terminate the contract unilaterally,” despite the fact that it meant an annual income of 40 million euros. Recently, a judge, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, ordered the blocking of the Kosmos Football SL bank account in Spain, which is exactly where this money goes, in order to prevent the company from using these funds.

The judge’s new suspicions are based on a second feature highlighted in the ruling: a corporate structure created by Rubiales that began to take shape “shortly after the signing of the agreement” for the Super Bowl. The report included in the summary of the Central Operations Unit (CO) of the Civil Guard already noted that 11 months before resigning in September 2023, Rubiales began creating a network of companies to allegedly “redirect part of the funds” that he allegedly received irregularly. The judge’s new order includes some of the details collected in that police document.

The UCO report highlights that through this network he invested money in various tourism-related ventures, such as the acquisition of two buildings in Granada to house tourist apartments, and the purchase of a stake in a company with which he operated three hotels in Spain. . or an investment of more than half a million euros in another company with a share in the Dominican Republic. Armed Institute investigators have already pointed to the alleged involvement of other federation directors in the network, including Albert Luque, former director of the Spanish national football team and accused, like Rubiales, in a case being investigated by the National Police. Trial for kissing Hermoso without consent.

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