Former Spain Football Federation President Luis Rubiales, notorious for kissing Spanish participant Jenni Hermoso with out her consent on the Women’s World Cup closing, was arrested by Spanish police on Wednesday as a part of a separate corruption investigation.
He was detained at Madrid’s airport upon getting back from the Dominican Republic and launched a number of hours later. An investigative choose is anticipated to name him in for additional questioning within the close to future.
Rubiales was returning to Spain amid a judicial probe into business offers whereas he ran the federation, together with his resolution to maneuver the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Rubiales was within the Dominican Republic two weeks in the past when police raided a property belonging to him within the southern Spanish metropolis of Granada and the workplaces of the Spanish Football Federation in Madrid. Seven individuals have been arrested by police earlier than being launched, and Rubiales was recognized as certainly one of 5 further people underneath investigation.
The corruption and cash laundering investigation is trying into contracts for the Spanish Super Cup and the federation’s hyperlinks with Seville’s La Cartuja Stadium, which hosts the Copa del Rey closing and a few worldwide video games, amongst different offers.
Rubiales stepped down as president of the federation in September after inflicting a global scandal for kissing Hermoso with out her consent on the Women’s World Cup closing. He is going through a trial for allegedly sexually assaulting Hermoso. He has denied any wrongdoing in that case.
Rubiales lower quick his keep overseas by three days. He had initially informed the courtroom that he was coming again on Saturday.
During his time as president of Spanish soccer, Rubiales overhauled the format of the Spanish Super Cup in 2020, making a four-team mini-tournament and shifting the competitors to Saudi Arabia as a part of a deal reportedly price 40 million euros (then $42 million) per event for the federation.
Prosecutors opened a probe of that deal in 2022 following leaked audio between Rubiales and then-Barcelona participant Gerard Pique relating to hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in commissions. Pique’s sports activities leisure firm Kosmos was concerned within the take care of the federation and Saudi Arabia. An organization official informed The Associated Press (AP) that no worker of Kosmos has been detained or positioned underneath investigation and no property of the corporate has been raided.
In a short preview of a recorded interview with Spanish tv channel La Sexta, Rubiales denied a collection of what he known as false claims made by Spanish media.
“I don’t know what the judge has said or what Civil Guard has investigated,” he said. “The cash in my checking account is the results of my work and my financial savings.”
Rubiales, 46, is a former participant who ran Spain’s fundamental gamers union earlier than he was elected to run the federation in 2018 when he changed Ángel Maria Villar, who was in energy for almost three a long time earlier than he was investigated for corruption. Rubiales shored up inner help by boosting revenues for the federation and spreading them round. He labored his approach as much as UEFA vice chairman and performed a component in securing the joint bid by Spain, Portugal and Morocco to co-host the 2030 males’s World Cup.
Spain’s Justice Minister Felix Bolanos, mentioned he was not involved about attainable reputational injury to Spain co-hosting the World Cup.
“The mere existence of this operation exhibits that Spain’s democratic and judicial establishments work and that helps assure the group and internet hosting of all worldwide occasions like a World Cup,” Bolanos mentioned.
The federation runs Spain’s males’s and ladies’s nationwide soccer groups, the Copa del Rey, and the nation’s semi-professional and beginner soccer leagues. It additionally organizes the referees. The authorities maintains some oversight of the entity nevertheless it can not identify or take away its executives.
Rubiales’ largest resolution was to take the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia. The golf equipment and federation appreciated the earnings, however the transfer was criticized by ladies’s and human rights teams over Saudi Arabia’s therapy of girls and minorities.
He had appeared untouchable, nonetheless, till he grew to become a nationwide embarrassment for his kiss of Hermoso on the Women’s World Cup. The world champion gamers boycotted the workforce, and after Rubiales initially claimed to be the sufferer of “false feminists,” he ultimately stop underneath immense stress.
Since he stepped down, the federation has been run by Pedro Rocha, the person Rubiales maneuvered to depart in cost. Spain’s authorities, reportedly together with FIFA, are pressuring the federation to carry new elections as quickly as attainable.
Source: www.dailysabah.com