The moment of the most anticipated statement is finally: that of the former president of the Luis Rubiales Federation. The former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) declares since Tuesday as investigated in the trial that is followed against him for the unseeled kiss and the alleged coercions subsequent to the football player Jennifer Hermoso. Rubiales, qIt faces 2 years and 6 months in jail for alleged crimes of sexual aggression and coercionshare the defendant bench with the former female selector Jorge Vilda, the former marketing director of the RFEF Rubén Rivera and the one who was director of the male team Albert Luque.
These three face a request of 1 year and 6 months in jail only for the alleged pressures. The fixed calendar that all of them will declare on Tuesday, being planned the conclusions and final reports for this week. After them, and the word shift, The trial will be seen for sentencealthough some parts warn that these procedures could be extended more than initially planned. If the statements lengthen, Rubiales could declare tomorrow.
The final brooch would be put to the scandal that dynamited Spanish football. On August 20, 2023, Spain was proclaimed world champion. The dream came true after defeating nothing more and nothing less than England in the final. The absolute was placed in the chest after a suffering victory against the almighty “lionesses.” However, beyond a historical achievement that copied all comments on radios, websites and social networks was the attitude of the president of the Federation, Luis Rubiales.
The kiss on the mouth given by the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, to the player Jenni Beautiful at the ceremony for the ceremony of the World Cup medals The Spanish team went viral on social networks immediately, turned the world around and ended with the resounding decision of the FIFA to disable it for 90 days.
His attitude in the box also crossed any red line of decorum in sport. The Spanish football president was a show without repairing that he was next to the FIFA authorities and what is more embarrassing: together with Queen Letizia and Infanta Sofia. Due to the euphoria of the moment, he celebrated with great effusivity the title with gestures, shouts, raising his arms … but the most criticized was his obscene gesture of bringing his hand to the crotch to celebrate the victory with those who were down. An intolerable attitude that, however, was eclipsed by his “peak” to Jenni. Despite this, Rubiales claimed that he would not resign. A decision that finally changed.
The sanction of the FIFA, the complaint presented by the Prosecutor’s Office and Jenni Hermoso’s complaint finally caused her resignation. In her statement before the Lieutenant Prosecutor of the National Court, the Spanish team player Jenni Hermos that both she and her closest surroundings suffered “A constant and repeated pressure” by the former president of the Spanish Football Federation. Its objective: that the world champion will justify and approve what happened at the end of the match at the Sydney stadium.
Finally, Rubiales – corrupted by the “factual powers – made its march effective and communicated it in London and in English, prior letter to the then president of the Federation, Pedro Rocha.
Until the controversial “peak”, Rubiales had been a survivor accustomed to leave any battle. In fact His mandate is dotted with controversies ranging from espionage or corruption to orgies with public money.
The other Rubiales scandals
The controversy of the medals
It is not the first time that Machismo accusations splashed the RFEF. Luis Rubiales has been pointed out to have a contempt behavior towards women for a long time. In the last female supercopa, won by Barça, it was evidenced by not delivering the medals to the champions and, instead, leaving them at a table where the players went to pick them up by their own foot. In addition, Rubiales has also been one of the foci of the criticism of the 15, the group of players who asked not to be summoned with the Spanish team until there were real changes in the team, the coach, Jorge Vilda, will be ceased, and It will achieve an effective professionalization of women’s football.
The Super Cup, the Audios and the “Cocaine”
One of the moments for difficult for the president of the RFEF was when conversations that the president of the RFEF had held with Gerard Piqué, player of the Football Club Barcelona, in 2019, where the transfer of the Spanish Super Cup had come to light To Saudi Arabia. The contract with Saudi Arabia, dated September 11, 2019 is valid for six years and “guaranteed the Federation Income of 40 million euros free of tax per seasona figure that triggered the variable salary that Rubiales perceives for presiding over that body. ” In addition, the company of the Football Club Barcelona pocketed a commission of 24 million euros.
Rubiales was accused of diverting money from the RFEFbut did not resign. Instead, he starred in a surrealist press conference where he signed that he expected “not to appear with a shot in a gutter.” “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, but I can’t guarantee that tomorrow They will not put a sack of cocaine in the trunk “he added.
The orgies scandal
The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) was denounced before the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office by his own uncle and former head of Cabinet, Juan Rubiales, for an alleged diversion of federative money to pay several orgies with friends in the Granada town of Salobreña, as the newspaper “El Mundo” unveiled exclusively.
The president would have celebrated this ‘event’ in a villa justifying some “working days” that finally “were not such.” In his complaint before justice, Juan Rubiales says that his nephew did not carry out any kind of meeting related to his professional activity, but that he celebrated these orgies with between eight and ten young women “only for enjoying him and his most direct team» , among which his friend, former soccer player Nené would be, «Paging the expenses with RFEF’s own company cards».
The Federation sharply denied the facts and He said it was an episode more of the “infamous campaign” that Luis Rubiales suffered.
Clandestine espionages and recordings
The serial of audios that uncovered the confidential uncovered alleged clandestine recordings carried out by Rubiales to ministers and charges of the Government of Pedro Sánchez. Rubiales would have been recording during the last four years Committed conversations with different members of the PSOE Executive and Unidas Podemos. The sound archive of the president of the RFEF dates back to May 2018, when he reached the position of Ángel María Villar, and extends to the present.
The audios – always according to this newspaper – are related to matters of maximum interest for Rubiales, such as the legal conflict that he maintained to achieve re -election at the head of the RFEF, his war with LaLiga for the First Division schedules, the dispute with the president of the Union of the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE), David Aganzo, and the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the confidential ensures that Rubiales would also have recordings on sensitive issues for Sánchez, which never became public.
But the spy movie does not end there. Rubiales was also accused of “watching” the AFE. According to the complaint filed by Juan Rubiales, the president decided to “go against David Aganzo, president of the AFE (Association of Spanish Footballers), for which He did not hesitate to hire a detective agency to follow up and know who meets, who speaks, who supports him … The payment of these surveillance services was carried out through a company of the lawyer Ramón Caravaca, which is the one that pays the company that performs the surveillances ”. According to him, these services were subsequently charged to the RFEF.
Amnesty International complaints
The scandal unleashed by the agreement between the Spanish Football Federation and the Gerard Piqué company to take the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia went beyond commissions or conflicts of interest. And it is that from Amnesty International they denounced that the situation of women in the Arab country is far from the description of Luis Rubiales. “They should be proud that a female league has been created thanks to the RFEF. It was an exemplary agreement. Before there were no bathrooms for women in the Saudi football fields and now, thanks to us, they enter equal ”he snapped before the press after the leakage of audios by the confidential.
Some words that caused great outrage among activists who have been fighting for the rights of women in Saudi Arabia years and described their comments as “disrespectful” and “shocking nonsense.” One of the most outraged organizations with the “image washing” of the Federation was Aministy International, which also accused Rubiales of lying on the efforts carried out by the organization that has been trying to be heard by the Federation for years.
The president of the Federation claimed to know his proposals for the press and even accused the unfair organization for not using the official channels but, the truth is that he disjointed up to five cards since 2019.
Even Sidney, the president of the Spanish Football Federation He seemed armored to any accusation, listening or denouncingBut, a single kiss opened the exit door for it.