Judge freezes bank account of Piqué company
BARCELONA, Spain, April 23, (AP): A Spanish judge has ordered a bank account of a company run by former Barcelona player Gerard Piqué to be frozen while she investigates suspicions of corruption in the hosting of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
A Spanish court confirmed local news reports saying that the investigating judge, Delia Rodrigo, acted Tuesday on a request by state prosecutors to place a freeze on a bank account belonging to Kosmos sports entertainment company, which was started and run by Piqué.
Kosmos did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Spanish police arrested ex-federation president Luis Rubiales earlier this month as part of a corruption and money laundering probe into activities under his mandate. Another seven people had previously been arrested in
March when police raided the federation offices in Madrid and a residence belonging to Rubiales in Granada.
Rubiales took the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia in 2020 for a deal that was reportedly worth 40 million euros (then $42 million) per tournament. Piqué, who was playing for Barcelona at that time and played in the Spanish Super Cup, helped get that deal done via his Kosmos company.
State prosecutors opened a probe of that deal in 2022 following leaked audio files of conversations between Rubiales and Piqué regarding millions of dollars in commissions.
Piqué has since retired from soccer. Kosmos was involved in revamping tennis’ Davis Cup and also starting the alternative King’s League soccer competition in Spain.
Rubiales stepped down in September after causing an international scandal during the awards ceremony for the Women’s World Cup final.
The match official accused of bias by English Premier League club Nottingham Forest got UEFA support on Tuesday by being selected for the European Championship as a video review expert.
Forest’s inflammatory social media post on Sunday targeting Stuart Attwell has been widely criticized across English soccer and was even mocked by another club.
Forest said Attwell is a fan of relegation rival Luton and claimed that this was a factor in not being awarded up to three penalty kicks on video review in a 2-0 loss at Everton on Sunday.
Attwell is among 20 video assistant referee (VAR) specialists chosen by UEFA to work at the 51-game Euro 2024 in Germany that starts June 14.