What do Spanish football clubs think of playing in a country of absolute monarchy, which last year executed more than 198 people, which decrees whippings for LGTBi people or which allows the guardianship of women by law? The answer is in the form of a number: the 40 million euros agreed in 2019 by Luis Rubiales with Sela, the state sports company owned by the Saudi royal family.
The Super Cup pits the champions and runners-up of the Spanish League and Cup against each other and is a star competition of the Football Federation (RFEF), the private entity – although declared of public interest – that manages all categories of football, except First and Second (which is a matter of Javier Tebas’ League). Its area of importance includes the men’s and women’s national teams, the Copa del Rey or the World Cups – which it will organize in Spain in 2030 together with Morocco and Portugal.
The Super Cup has been held in Saudi Arabia since 2020, despite criticism from many groups, activists, some footballers like Iñaki Williams or even from people with the influence of Tebas himself, who showed his disagreement with the decision to take the competition to the Arabian Peninsula, a decision made by his arch-enemy Luis Rubiales, who resigned in 2023 after the non-consensual kiss with Jenni Hermoso and various causes. of corruption in the courts.
The new Federation, governed since December by Rafael Louzán with promises of transparency and renewal, not only has not cooled down the project of playing in a country that does not respect human rights in exchange for money, but has increased the bet: “The Saudis “They want to develop women’s football, why not a Spanish Women’s Super Cup in Arabia?” the president of the RFEF asked himself a few days ago during the break between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, as a preview of what he already has. in mind the Federation: expand their agreements now that women’s football has more momentum. For the detractors of the idea, it means whitewashing the Saudi regime which, while it would welcome and show free and independent footballers on the pitch, would continue to force Saudi women to ask permission from their husbands, fathers or men of reference for everything.

In this year’s edition, there has also been a public complaint from women and relatives of the Mallorca footballers, who said they had suffered “harassment” and “touching” at the exit of the King Abdullah stadium in Jeddah when the team played. “What should have been one of the happiest days of our lives ended up marred by anguish and fear,” said Cristina Palavra, partner of soccer player Dani Rodríguez. There the Federation did not ask anything, but rather gave an answer in a statement: Saudi Arabia was not to blame, they confused harassment “with burden.” In statements to elDiario.es, the RFEF pointed out that it is necessary to “differentiate well” between “harassment, which is always linked to sexual matters,” and “an overwhelm,” when they were overwhelmed by the “turmoil.” To something else.
All the signs are clear and lead one to think that this very personal project of Rubiales wants to be maintained, if not redoubled, with the idea that the women’s category, which has been held until now in Almería or Salamanca, will also move to the Saudi kingdom and Let no “overwhelm” prevent it. The men’s competition agreement came into force in 2020 and was extended until 2029. Louzán has expressed his intention to extend the pact with Sela until 2034.
The economic incentive has been very attractive to the new federation, which minimizes criticism. According to the contract signed with Saudi Arabia – to which elDiario.es has had access and which is being investigated in a court in Majadahonda (Madrid) – for each edition of the Super Cup held in that country, the RFEF takes 40 million euros, which represents 10% of your annual budget. Of them, 20 go to the entity and its expenses. The other 20 are distributed among the participating clubs, with priority for Barça and Real Madrid. For a modest club to reach the final is not only not welcome sportingly, but it is penalized: if none of the big clubs (who charge a fixed 6 million to participate) are finalists, Arabia would pay the Federation 10 million euros less. . “It is proof that the least important thing is football, it is pure checkbook,” explain some knowledgeable sources critical of the agreement. The champion takes two million. The finalist, one. Getting to the semi-final is 800,000. No matter what happens, money is made in the Super Cup, especially the Federation and the most powerful clubs.
But it’s not all glitter and petrodollars. A judge from Majadahonda who investigates corruption in the Federation during the Rubiales era is analyzing the contract, after the complaint by Miguel Ángel Galán, president of a coaches association against the Granada native. Among the reasons, a hidden commission of 4 million euros per year that ex-footballer Gerard Piqué receives and that several media outlets revealed. The basic doubt is about what, since he was included as a commission agent with the contract already agreed between the RFEF and Saudi Arabia. As an Intervention report included in the case says: if the operation was already underway, why was a second contract signed to include the commission of an intermediary agent? The technicians’ suspicion is that Piqué, who took the money to accounts in Andorra, was a commission agent for the RFEF (as well as a friend of Rubiales) and not from Saudi Arabia. What they are trying to elucidate in court is to do what and why Rubiales had the enormous determination that Piqué take that money, to the point that the contract with Sela states that, if the “agent” (the name of Piqué always remains hidden in the papers), the contract would expire.

When Rubiales called for a rebuttal for the agreement with the Saudi kingdom to go ahead and be defended tooth and nail from the Federation, he found no opposition among his board of directors or his employees. Nobody objected, least of all one person: Ana Muñoz, vice president of Integrity, who resigned after publicly doubting the operation and the opaque and secretive way in which it had been signed. But it didn’t help much because the contract passed all the ethical, integrity and compliance. Among the reasons for this success for Rubiales there is one name: Tomás González Cueto, his right-hand man and legal brain of the RFEF, now also being investigated in the Majadahonda court.
The witnesses who have been brought before the judge – among them, the former president of the Federation Pedro Rocha, who ended up charged – have not been decisive about who had responsibility or what the commissions were for, revealing that the RFEF was governed by a only person, Rubiales, although an appearance of structure was maintained in the entity.
Andreu Camps, general secretary of the RFEF with Rubiales, gave the judge a piece of information that exemplifies the personalism in the decision that no one refuted: the country chosen for the Super Cup was Qatar, after conducting a market survey. He paid 33 million, but there was no penalty if Madrid or Barça fell by the wayside. When the agreement was about to be signed, for some reason that he said he did not know, Rubiales brought the name of Saudi Arabia to the table, he broke with Qatar and the RFEF opted for that contract in a certain way.

The former secretary of the Federation himself blamed a vice president for the decision to give free rein to a Barça player being paid for transferring a competition that involved Barça: “Elvira Andrés told the federation that there was no conflict of interest because whoever signed “The contract was Sela (…) and since the federation was not a party, it did not have to report.” Thus, without going through the commissions or passing in front of members of the board who did not stop it and followed the guidelines of the then president, Saudi Arabia and the Spanish Football Federation conspired for an agreement that would lead the most important Spanish teams to play for a decade in a country without democracy.
Rubiales’ bet came out ahead with his million-dollar commissions and overcoming all moral doubts – “so companies can go or make a Hail to Mecca, but we can’t go?” he asked himself in public when he was questioned. Now, his successor, Rafael Louzán, sees the bet and doubles it, with statements that anticipate more Super Cups in Saudi Arabia and perhaps other competitions, while justice investigates how and why that contract was made and in whose favor the best Spanish teams They ended up playing 6,000 kilometers away, in the middle of a desert and on the grass of a human rights wasteland.
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