The scene, described by the sports daily Brand, seems surreal. On Wednesday March 20, the players of the Spanish selection were training on the grounds of the Las Rozas sports complex, in the Madrid suburbs, when agents of the Civil Guard (the equivalent of the gendarmerie in France) searched the premises of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
Renamed “Shameful Royal Football Federation” in one of Brand, the RFEF is in the sights of the Spanish justice for cases of “money laundering, embezzlement, corruption between individuals and use of tax havens”, summarizes the newspaper in its March 21 edition. Seven people were arrested, and other searches were carried out on Wednesday elsewhere in Spain, notably at the home of the former president of the RFEF, Luis Rubiales, in Granada (in the south of the country).
The Spanish public prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant against the ex-leader, aged 46, reported Brand in an article published in the evening on his site. He chaired the RFEF from 2018 to 2023, before resigning following the forced kiss affair against footballer Jenni Hermoso. Rubiales has been in the Dominican Republic since February 21, where he is going “regularly for baseball-related activities”, explain Brand. On Thursday March 21, the press announced that he planned to return to Spain on April 6.
“Spanish football is rotten”
The searches carried out on Wednesday should shed light on “the Spanish Super Cup contract in Saudi Arabia”, detailed Brand. Since 2020, the Saudi kingdom has hosted the semi-finals and the final of this competition organized by the RFEF, for 44 million euros per year. A market in which the Kosmos company, owned by former footballer Gérard Piqué, served as an intermediary.
Investigators are also interested in “presumed irregular contracts” regarding the renovation work on the Cartuja stadium in Seville, where the Spanish national team usually plays, as well as the alleged use of “tax havens”, as part of agreements entered into by the RFEF with companies in the cryptocurrency sector.
“Spanish football is rotten”, is indignant El Periódico de Catalunya from Barcelona, especially since these affairs are delaying the announcement of the holding of elections within the RFEF.
“Moreover, souffle Brand in a last article, we must not forget that next December the FIFA assembly must ratify the Spanish, Moroccan and Portuguese candidacy for the 2030 World Cup […]. It is true that there are no other rivals in the race, but Spain must explain everything that happened so that there is not the slightest doubt to be able to move the project forward .”
Dani Alves soon to be released?
The judicial chronicle largely occupies the sports pages in Spain. Wednesday March 20, in addition to the searches at the RFEF headquarters, the press learned that ex-footballer Dani Alves, sentenced on February 22 to four and a half years in prison for the rape of a young woman in December 2022, was granted conditional release by the Barcelona court in exchange for paying bail of 1 million euros.
The Brazilian has spent fourteen months behind bars since his arrest in January 2023. His Brazilian and Spanish passports have been confiscated, and he is banned from leaving Spain. However, warns the Catalan newspaper The vanguard in an article published Thursday March 21, his defense did not manage to raise the necessary sum to allow him to leave prison, even if they think they can do so “in the next few hours”. Spanish newspapers suggest that the family of another Brazilian footballer, Neymar, would be ready to pay bail.
Courrier International