FC Barcelona legend Gerard Pique has been tipped to come out of a corruption and money laundering … [+]
In an interview the investigation’s main prosecutor conducted with El Desmarque, FC Barcelona legend Gerard Pique has been tipped to come out of a corruption and money laundering probe as bad as Luis Rubiales or even ‘worse than’ the disgraced ex-Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) chief.
Previously stationed in the Dominican Republic, Rubiales was arrested upon landing in Spain on Wednesday after a Granada property belonging to him and the RFEF’s offices in Madrid were raided in late March.
Spain’s state prosecutors said that 11 premises were searched for documents. Seven arrests were also made, with Rubiales identified as being under investigation as part of a corruption and money laundering probe.
At the turn of the week, footage emerged from an interview Rubiales conducted with Ana Pastor where he stated: “My money is the product of my work and my savings.”
Rubiales is being investigated for RFEF contracts connected to the Spanish Super Cup being held in Saudi Arabia, and in his own interview with El Desmarque, the main promoter in the complaint against Rubiales, Miguel Angel Galan, revealed his belief that Blaugrana icon Gerard Pique will also be investigated because of the involvement of his Kosmos company in taking the competition to the Middle East.
When asked, Galan said that Pique will “absolutely” come up in the probe and come out of it “the same or worse than Rubiales”.
“Do not doubt that Pique is going to testify as a person under investigation because Kosmos is accused and Rubiales as well,” Galan said.
“Pique is going to testify as a safe suspect, because we are talking about €24 million ($26 million) in illegal commissions”.
“There is a devastating report on the general intervention of the state at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, in which it says that Kosmos was an intermediary of the Spanish National Football Team.
“Therefore, both the RFEF and Pique cannot continue to repeat that the former footballer was an agent of Arabia,” Galan insisted.
This is because “the RFEF’s contract with Saudi Arabia says that if the commission is not paid to Pique, the contract is broken”.
“Consequently, there is the corruption of the business conditioning the contract for Pique’s commission, with the aggravating circumstance that there was another offer at the same time and another contract from Qatar bigger than this one, where there was no room for commission agents,” Galan also stated.
Retiring from the club of his life in November 2022, Pique has since focused on the launching of the highly-successful King’s League but returned to Barca at the weekend to watch its 1-0 win against Las Palmas.
