April 24 – A Spanish judge has ordered the bank account of a company run by former international defender Gerard Piqué to be frozen while suspicions of corruption are investigated over the hosting of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Investigating judge Delia Rodrigo acted Tuesday on a request by state prosecutors to place a freeze on an account belonging to Kosmos sports entertainment company, which was started and run by Piqué.
Kosmos said it will appeal the decision and underscored that neither the company nor Piqué were identified by the court as being under investigation.
Last month Spanish police arrested at least six people and raided the offices of the Spanish FA (RFEF) as well as a property belonging to former president Luis Rubiales as part of a corruption and money laundering investigation reportedly linked to taking the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia in a multimillion-euro deal.
Four years ago, Rubiales angered football traditionalists by expanding the contest between the league champions and Copa del Rey winners to a four-team format, shifting the event from August to January and hosting it outside Spain – a deal reportedly worth €40 million per tournament for the Spanish federation.
Piqué, who was playing for Barcelona at that time, is said to have helped get the deal done via Kosmos.
According to the website El Confidencial the contract included Kosmos receiving €4 million for each of six tournaments. The revelations claimed Kosmos acted as intermediary between the Spanish FA and the Saudis.
State prosecutors opened their probe in 2022 following leaked audio files of conversations between Rubiales and Piqué regarding millions of dollars in commissions. Piqué has since retired from the game.
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