Yesterday the police searched the headquarters of the entity in Madrid and a department of your former president Luis Rubiales, and arrested seven people. Five were arrested in the Spanish capital and two in Granada in connection with the case, the police said. Spanish Civil Guard, without giving names or more details.
The police intervention was part of “an investigation linked to alleged criminal acts associated with corruption in business, unfair administration and money laundering,” said judicial sources.
A Spanish court has been investigating since June 2022 whether Rubiales committed a crime of disloyal administration when the RFEF agreed with the company Kosmos, owned by former Barcelona player Gerard Piqué, to transfer the tournament, a judicial source reported.
Rubiales denied having committed any irregularities and initially RFEF declined to comment.
However today, the Real spanish soccer federation, directed by Pedro Rocha on an interim basis, was the one that decided to take action on the matter in the form of termination of contracts for workers of the body that governs Spanish football.
The Federation has sent a burofax with which the employment relationship with Tomás González Cueto, legal advisor of the RFEF, and Antonio Ramón Caravaca, lawyer and administrator of the real estate company who was in charge of the alleged espionage of David Aganzo, current president of AFE, and who is also being investigated by the same Majadahonda court. All powers they had have been revoked from both of them.
In addition, another burofax has also been sent to Pedro González Segura, graduate in Law and former referee who came to direct in Second B in 2003, who is removed from all functions in the RFEF as external legal advisor. Another notification was sent to him by the authorities of the RFEF to the director of Human Resources, José Javier Jiménez.
The notifications from the court that is carrying out the investigation of the case requested the information, but González Cueto and González Segura They never processed or sent anything to the court, which is why they never received the requested documents.
In a statement, the RFEF reports that: “The Royal Spanish Football Federation has opened sanctioning proceedings and has removed the directors related to the judicial case being handled by Court 4 of Majadahonda from their jobs and duties; specifically, the director of Legal Services, Pedro González Segura; and the director of Human Resources, José Javier Jiménez.
Likewise, it has terminated the external contract with GC Legal, the office of Tomás González Cueto, as external control commissioner. The powers of representation in all judicial proceedings have also been revoked, both from him and from Ramón Caravaca and other lawyers from this office.
In addition, the disciplinary responsibilities that Federation employees may have incurred related to these events, in one way or another, will be analyzed.
Likewise, the RFEF will appear in this case, given the very serious damage it is causing to the institution and to the image of football in Spain.
These measures have been taken by the president of the RFEF Management Commission, following the events that occurred yesterday.
Luis Rubiales, who was the head of the RFEF, 46 years old, is currently in the Dominican Republic and according to some Spanish media he should return to Spain on April 6.
The contracts to move the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, which since 2020 has hosted the semifinals and final of that competition, It represented around €40 million annually (US$43.3 million) for the RFEF and Kosmos, the company of former soccer player Gerard Piqué, acted as intermediary in it.
Rubiales resigned as president of the RFEF in September, after having forced a kiss to the player Jenni Hermoso after the women’s team’s victory in the World Cup in August.
Spanish authorities opened an investigation in 2022 into the agreement for the Spain Supercup after the release of audio recordings of conversations between Rubiales and Piqué, in which they alluded to commissions of several million euros.
Rubiales He always defended the legality of the agreement to bring the Super Cup to Arabia, ensuring that “the Federation has not paid, does not pay and will not pay a single euro of commission to anyone for this agreement.”
Gerard Piqué For his part, he stated in April 2022 that “everything is legal” and that he was “proud” of the agreement reached.
Source: Ambito
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