The Higher Sports Council tells Anticorruption that it did not authorize the transfer of the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia

He stresses that "the Super Cup is an official competition of a state level and non-professional nature run by the RFEF"

MADRID, 21 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Superior Sports Council (CSD) has informed the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office -in the framework of the investigation into alleged irregularities committed within the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF)- that it did not authorize the transfer of the Supercopa de Spain to Saudi Arabia.

"There is no authorization or endorsement by the CSD, nor communication from the RFEF in relation to the transfer of the soccer Super Cup to Saudi Arabia," said the president of the Higher Sports Council, José Manuel Franco.

This is stated in an official letter, to which Europa Press has had access, in which the Council has responded to a request from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office made last May. The Public Ministry demanded from the body, among other things, the statutes of the RFEF, as well as the regulations and complementary regulations.

It should be remembered that before the Majadahonda Court Number 4 admitted in June a complaint against the president of the Federation, Luis Rubiales, and the footballer and owner of the company Kosmos Global Holding, Gerard Piqué, the investigation into the alleged irregularities in the RFEF started in May at the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

The Specialized Prosecutor's Office put the magnifying glass on Rubiales' management at the head of the RFEF and based, among other issues, on the contract for the Spanish Super Cup to be played in Saudi Arabia with the mediation of Piqué.

From the Higher Sports Council they have distanced themselves from said management and have specified that "the Super Cup is an official competition of a state level and non-professional nature in charge of the RFEF."

In the trade, the CSD has influenced that the Spanish sports federations, in addition to their own activities of government, administration, management, organization and regulation of the sports specialties that correspond to them, organize "official activities and competitions at state level", Like the Super Cup.

The response of the Higher Sports Council is now included in the summary of the investigation that is being followed in the Investigating Court Number 4 of Majadahonda as a result of the complaint presented by the leader of the National Center for the Training of Soccer Coaches (CENAFE), Miguel Ángel Galán, in which he pointed to the commissions charged by the RFEF and Piqué's company for the Spanish Super Cup tournament to be played in Saudi Arabia. To this complaint was added another from Clean Hands.

According to the letter presented by Galán, Rubiales and Piqué hatched a "plan to profit" with the transfer of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia in exchange for 24 million euros, "stubbornly" hiding the commissions, which "disguised with documentation, pretending that the payment was made by a third party.

"The defendants began their plan as a unit of interest, collaborating with each other in such a way that sometimes it was not easy to decide which of them was the president and which was the apparent commission agent," he said.

In the letter, Galán assured that the objective of Rubiales and Piqué was to "do business", although they did not know "what", "how" or "where": "What they did know and wanted was to do it together", stressed the complainant.

Thus, he attributed alleged crimes of corruption between individuals and in business, unfair administration, administrative prevarication and bribery, considering that they would have harmed the assets of the RFEF.

Subsequently, Galán expanded the complaint, understanding that Rubiales would also have engaged in criminal conduct by enjoying a home in Madrid whose rent would have supported the RFEF despite the fact that he was registered in the capital, which would violate internal regulations.

According to this expanded complaint, the RFEF would have been "paying for months in an allegedly irregular manner the rent for Rubiales' home, a luxury apartment in the Plaza de España in the capital."

In a report, to which Europa Press has had access, the Support Unit of the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE) to Anti-Corruption has assured that Rubiales "had no right" to help for his home.

The IGAE has indicated that the president of the Federation "had to have been registered in the municipal register of a municipality of the Community of Madrid, foreseeably in the capital of said Community, since his habitual residence was in this town."