Former Barcelona player Gerard Piqué is now officially under investigation by a Spanish judge for his suspected involvement in illegal payments related to the relocation of Spain’s Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Judge Delia Rodrigo has determined that there are grounds to suspect wrongdoing in the agreement between Piqué’s company Kosmos and the Spanish football federation (RFEF), as outlined in court documents.
The agreement, signed in 2019, involved former RFEF president Luis Rubiales, the Saudi government-owned Sela Sport Company, and Piqué. It allegedly stipulated that Piqué’s company would receive a €40 million “success bonus” annually for hosting the games in Saudi Arabia.
“The facts under investigation in the present proceedings originate from possible illegalities with criminal implications in contracting or agreements,” Rodrigo wrote.
The court has been investigating since June 2022 whether Rubiales committed a crime of improper management when the RFEF agreed with Piqué’s Kosmos firm to move the tournament.
In March, police searched the RFEF’s headquarters and an apartment belonging to Rubiales and arrested seven people in a corruption probe over the multimillion-euro deal.
Rubiales, who has denied any wrongdoing, was told he was a suspect in the probe by police in April after returning from spending two months in the Dominican Republic on what he described as a business trip.
Piqué, who played for Barcelona in Super Cup matches in Saudi Arabia, was originally awarded an annual payment of $4 million ($4.33 million) over six years. This was later extended by four years.
Pedro Rocha, who at the time was head of the RFEF’s economic department, failed to call a meeting of the economic commission as he should have done to analyse the four-year extension of the deal.
Rocha was elected president of the RFEF last month despite being put under investigation after testifying as a witness in court and saying he had no knowledge of or responsibility for any of the alleged crimes being investigated in the case.