The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has been searching since Wednesday morning the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in the framework of a case regarding alleged irregularities in contracts created in the last five years, some of them linked to the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, according to several sources close to the investigations.
The agents of the armed institute, who also have contracts for events held in China and some works at the La Cartuja Stadium in Seville under suspicion, have arrested seven people (five in Madrid and two in Granada) and, as confirmed by police sources and legal, have entered the Granada home of the former president of the federation, Luis Rubiales.
The former president of the RFEF is not among those detained, since he is currently outside Spain, but he is one of the people investigated in this operation, according to these sources.
According to sources in the investigation, the armed institute had authorization to search a dozen homes, in addition to the RFEF headquarters, and to execute several judicial requests to different public and private entities.
From the beginning, the investigators planned to close the operation this Wednesday with seven detainees, to which are added five other people under investigation who have not been arrested and two other people under suspicion who are outside of Spain and who, according to what they consider, could be under arrest. police custody upon his return (Rubiales himself and former soccer player Francisco Javier Martín Alcaide, alias
Nené
, friend of the former director).
Police sources confirm that among those arrested are Tomás González Cueto, external legal advisor to the RFEF and former trusted man of Rubiales;
Pedro González Segura, director of legal services, and José Javier Giménez, head of Personnel of the RFEF.
Ramón Caravaca, a partner in González Cueto's office, is among those investigated and not detained, according to these same sources.
The case investigates alleged crimes of business corruption, unfair administration and money laundering.
The interim president of the federation, Pedro Rocha, is not among those investigated.
The one baptized as Operation Brody is directed by the head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction 4 of Majadahonda (Madrid), Delia Rodrigo, who opened it in 2022 and, since then, has worked in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
In this Wednesday's deployment, in addition to the Civil Guard, the European Union Agency for Police Cooperation (Europol) participates.
According to investigation sources, the agents have broken into the RFEF headquarters in Las Rozas (Madrid), where documentation is being sought in the Administration, Human Resources and Legal departments.
The magistrate has authorized the searches after the requirements to provide documentation that had been made have been evaded for months, according to legal sources.
However, this Wednesday the federation issued a statement in which it assured its willingness to offer “full collaboration” and insisted on “reaching the ultimate consequences in the ongoing investigation.”
Sources close to the investigations detail that the Civil Guard has proceeded to dump the emails with which the alleged parties exchanged messages about the contracts signed from the time of Rubiales, who became president in 2018. Among them are those related to the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup - a competition that pits the two finalists of the Copa del Rey and the first two finishers in the League - in Saudi Arabia, which was reflected in an agreement for 264 million euros signed in 2019 between the then president of the Federation and the company Kosmos, of which Gerard Piqué, former FC Barcelona player, is founder and president.
The contract contemplates playing it in this country until next year's edition.
The RFEF issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon: “Today all collaboration was offered to the State Security Forces and Bodies, as well as to the justice system, after the search of its headquarters.
The RFEF has opted for absolute transparency in the institution that runs football in Spain.
In this sense, he considers that the ultimate consequences must be reached in the ongoing investigation.
The Federation shows its deep concern about the events that occurred today and advocates offering all possible transparency, honoring the values that football represents and that its leaders must defend, and must be an example for society."
The initial complaint
The origin of the case is the complaint filed in May 2022 by Miguel Galán, leader of the National Training Center for Soccer Coaches (Cenafe), on behalf of the Transparency and Democracy in Sports Association.
In that complaint, Galán complained against both Rubiales and Piqué for the crimes of unfair administration and corruption in business.
In the text, the Cenafe manager accused the former of four alleged irregularities, among them those related to the contract for the celebration of the Super Cup.
In addition, the complaint focused on three other expenses.
Firstly, the alleged hiring by the RFEF of a detective agency through a front company to spy for several days in October 2019 on David Aganzo, president of the AFE, the main footballers' union and with which Rubiales was confronted.
The complaint, which included journalistic information, quantified the expense of those alleged monitoring at 11,764 euros.
He also accused the former president of the federation of having received, allegedly irregularly, 3,100 euros per month for nine months to rent a 125-square-meter luxury apartment in the center of Madrid, as well as paying with money from the federation for a trip Six-day pleasure to New York in October 2018 with his romantic partner.
The fall of Rubiales
Luis Rubiales, who is disqualified by FIFA for a period of three years, left the RFEF leadership last September.
He abandoned the presidency after clinging to the position for days despite the scandal that surrounded him for kissing player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth after winning the Women's World Cup.
Due to these events, the National Court opened an investigation and, after several months of investigation, Judge Francisco de Jorge concluded that there are “solid indications” that the kiss “was not consensual and was a unilateral and surprising initiative” by the then top manager of Spanish football.
The Prosecutor's complaint charged Rubiales with an alleged crime of sexual assault and another of coercion, due to the maneuvers subsequently hatched within the organization to try to get the athlete to appear in public to endorse the president's actions.
The departure of Rubiales from the federation, which dragged others with him, caused a series of changes and left one of his trusted men, Pedro Rocha, as interim president, who had to call elections.
This is what the Higher Sports Council (CSD) urged him to do, which ruled just a few days ago and following a report from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAD).
The CSD invites two electoral processes to be held in the coming months to elect a president and renew the assembly.
In that sense, Rocha, who is neither detained nor investigated, had planned to dissolve the managing board at four in the afternoon this Wednesday and call the elections, but the meeting of the managing board has been suspended with the entry of the UCO to the federation.
“We have trained so normally”
The searches have coincided with the presence of the senior team at the Ciudad del Fútbol residence.
But it took them a while to find out, as Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya said: "We got up, we had breakfast, we trained so normally... I didn't realize what was happening," he said in a press conference held. while the agents were still in the office building.
The activity surrounding the selection of Luis de la Fuente continued with apparent normality while the Civil Guard reviewed documents.
The press entered the federation facilities like any other day, although supervised by a somewhat larger contingent of private security personnel than on other occasions.
They monitored that there were no deviations of personnel towards the office building, they notified by radio of the people who passed by each point so that they would not be missing at the next and they made sure that the facilities were abandoned when the press activities ended.
“You cannot record video.
If it's over, it has to come out," they said.
Among the group of footballers, the morning passed through the normal course of breakfast, preparations, training, shower and attention to the media.
The only trace of the activity ordered by the court, which included the forecast of seven arrests, were the jokes of some player with the federation staff: “Eat something now, lest it be…”.
Little information circulated among the employees who took care of the equipment about what was happening in the offices.
From a distance, a dozen workers could be seen on the terrace of the cafeteria, in the air of a sunny spring morning.
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