Nothing is going well for Luis Rubiales. Resigning from his post as president of the Spanish Federation following the controversy arising from his forced kiss on Jennifer Hermoso after the final of the Women’s World Cup, the 46-year-old leader returned to the front page of the national press this Thursday. According to El Mundo, the former professional player paid a secret commission during his mandate to a certain Gérard Piqué, also not spared from criticism in recent days.
According to the Spanish media, Rubiales would have delivered 24 million euros to the former FC Barcelona defender in 2019 to thank him for his role as negotiator, played via his company Kosmos, in the relocation of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. This enormous sum, kept secret by the two men from Barça, would be three times higher than that promised to the Catalan club (€8 million) to agree to play in the Middle East.
“I hope you will be happy to guarantee between 6.8 and 8 million for your club,” the boss of Spanish football wrote at the time in private messages to Oscar Grau, then executive director of the Blaugranas. Who responded, reveals El Mundo: “I would like to congratulate you on the change of format (a mini-tournament with semi-finals and a final has been organized since 2019 in the Super Cup), because it is good for the promotion of football Spanish, for its dissemination and, moreover, beneficial for the participating clubs.
It remains to be seen whether the two accused, Luis Rubiales and Gérard Piqué, will react quickly to this (new) case concerning them.
