Adopts this decision after taking a statement as investigated for his management in the RFEF
MADRID, 29 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 4 of Majadahonda has agreed that the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales appears once a month before the courts and that he report and request permission to make any trip abroad. .
This has been confirmed by legal sources to Europa Press, who explain that Judge Delia Rodrigo has adopted this decision after questioning Rubiales as an investigator for his management as president of the Federation between 2018 and 2023, with the focus on the transfer of the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia and the alleged diversion of funds due to irregularities associated with contracts.
According to the same sources, the Prosecutor’s Office had requested biweekly appearances and Rubiales’ defense – led by the lawyer José Vicente Gómez Tejedor – has opposed such request. The judge, finally, has agreed that the appearances will have to be monthly and that she will also have to attend as many times as she deems appropriate.
Likewise, the head of the court has established that Rubiales will have to inform and request permission to travel abroad. Additionally, she must notify how long she will be away and at what address she will stay.
The judge adopted these precautionary measures after Rubiales answered her questions, those of the prosecutor and those of her lawyer for more than four hours – with three breaks included. During that time, she has denied the irregularities attributed to her by the Prosecutor’s Office in the procedure being followed against her for alleged crimes of corruption in business, unfair administration, according to the sources consulted.
In relation to the contract to bring the soccer Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, he has assured that the RFEF did not go to Kosmos, but rather it was the company of former soccer player Gerard Piqué who contacted them to notify them that SELA — the state company Saudi– wanted to invest in football. However, he has specified that what the company intended was to obtain the lowest possible agreement, while in the Federation they sought to close the highest price.
In this sense, although he has recognized that the former F.C. player Barcelona called him to notify him of this business possibility, he has specified that he attended to him as he attends to any person who calls him with this type of offer.
This being the case, he has insisted that the Federation did not look for Kosmos and that it did not ally with this company to look for SELA, but that the Saudi company contacted them. On this point, he also recalled that the RFEF also received proposals from China, Russia and India and that in those cases they had “intermediaries.”
As he said, it is “usual” in the world of football that there is an intermediation. He has stressed that everything was “clean” and that the contract was drawn up by the external commissioner of the Federation, in reference to Tomás González Cueto, also investigated in the case. On this point, he has pointed out that, although it was not necessary for the assembly or the board to approve the contract, they still did.
In addition, he assured that the contract did not have to go through the Federation’s economic commission, given that it was an income and not an expense. And he has stressed that he himself could have signed the contract without informing the rest, but he has insisted that he acted with “transparency.”
However, he pointed out that the compliance unit told him that the fact that the Federation signed with Kosmos was not illegal and that a “positive” report was drawn up from the ethics commission.
However, he has indicated that no commission was agreed that was not in the contract, that he did not negotiate for Kosmos and that he limited himself to negotiating the money that would reach the Federation.
At this point, Rubiales has stressed that when he arrived at the Federation, the compliance unit was created – to detect possible irregularities -, the economic commission and the transparency codes.
According to the sources consulted, he stated that before his administration the previous president had been told to award matches “by hand” and that, with his arrival, that changed and the matches began to be awarded through bidding and in an open manner.
As part of the interrogation, he was also asked about the works on the La Cartuja stadium, Seville. On this matter, he has also denied irregularities and has assured that he passed the matter to the economic committee.
Likewise, Rubiales has spoken about his trip to New York and the party in Salobreña. On all these points he has denied irregularities and has made a point of denying that his friend Francisco Martín Alcaide, known as Nene, brought women to the party in Granada. Along the way, he has also taken the opportunity to defend that Nene is not an intermediary for the Federation.
