Seeing the attention and the spectacle generated by the return of the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, to Madrid-Barajas airport this Wednesday, with his detention by officers on the runway itself and his release just minutes later, one can easily come to the conclusion that football and circuses continue to be a perfect combination to keep the public entertained. With all the serious problems that Spain has, for an entire day Rubiales seemed to be the only subject and the expectation at the airport could not have been much greater if the Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont, had come out through that door or the Real Madrid football team had returned from London after winning a fifteenth European Cup.
Rubiales's arrival from the Dominican Republic took place on his own initiative, making a return earlier than planned in the face of the summons by Spanish justice but, on the other hand, it appeared more like the arrest in Laos of the former director of the Civil Guard, Luis Roldán, surely the most famous fugitive of Spanish democracy, who had got rich via secret state funds and, among numerous excesses, was accused of creaming off money intended for Civil Guard orphans. It remains to be seen how the Rubiales case ends, with the former football administrator investigated for corruption in matters that are, without a doubt, all too murky. In addition, the explanations given by Rubiales, far from removing the shadows of suspicion, make them even more obscure, since they are enormously incongruous. Stripped of the protective layer he seemed to have from the Spanish Socialist (PSOE) party, Rubiales appears naked and will have to give explanations about his patrimony beyond the assertion that the money accumulated is the result of his labours.
Rubiales appears naked and will have to give explanations about his patrimony beyond the assertion that the money accumulated is the result of his labours
The most worrying thing about the issue is that the whole Rubiales scandal was started by his sexist attitude with the footballer Jennifer Hermoso, with that unconsented kiss after the final of the Women's World Cup against England, played in Australia and New Zealand last August. For that kiss, in March, Spanish prosecutors requested a prison sentence of two years and six months. Rubiales had difficulty in resigning from the presidency of the Spanish football body and he only did so when he found that the PSOE had let him fall, in case they also got tarred with the same brush. It was that coercion case that opened Pandora's box and unlocked all the corruption accusations which until then had failed to thrive, as his power seemed omnipresent and protected from any accusation. Now Rubiales knows that nothing will be the same as before and he will be scrutinized as harshly as all those people who, from time to time, fall off their pedestals or end up turning into uncomfortable friends.
The Rubiales plot has, as is being seen, many ramifications with friends and family members moving cash from Spain to the Dominican Republic. The latest name known is that of ex-football player Gerard Piqué, with respect to whom the Civil Guard's Central Operational Unit (UCO) last September asked for account information, in relation to his alleged relationship with the contract negotiated with Rubiales in his time as president of the RFEF for the Super Cup of Spanish football to be played in Saudi Arabia. The Civil Guard wants to know if Piqué paid commissions to Rubiales through his accounts in Andorra. According to the judge investigating the case, the investigation has revealed an alleged large flow of money across the accounts of Piqué's business Kosmos, as well as those of the ex-footballer himself and his entourage. The Rubiales case may just be the beginning.