Rubiales questioned a few enterprise deal to maneuver the Spanish Tremendous Cup to Saudi Arabia, signed throughout his time as president.
Police have detained Luis Rubiales, former president of the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation, on his return to Spain as a part of an ongoing corruption probe, the Civil Guard says.
The nationwide police power mentioned Rubiales was questioned by police at Madrid’s airport after he was detained on Wednesday after exiting a aircraft that introduced him again dwelling from the Dominican Republic. He was then launched.
Rubiales returned to Spain as a judicial probe is being carried out right into a enterprise deal to carry the Spanish Tremendous Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Rubiales was within the Dominican Republic two weeks in the past when police raided a property belonging to him in Granada and the workplaces of the Spanish Soccer Federation in Madrid as a part of a corruption and cash laundering investigation that included the Tremendous Cup amongst different offers.
Seven folks have been detained by police, and Rubiales was recognized as one in all 5 extra people beneath investigation.
Rubiales stepped down as president of the federation in September after inflicting a global scandal for kissing participant Jenni Hermoso with out her consent after Spain gained the Ladies’s World Cup in August. He’s going through trial on a cost of sexually assaulting Hermoso. He has denied any wrongdoing in that case.
Rubiales minimize brief his keep overseas by three days. He had initially advised the courtroom that he was coming again on Saturday.
Throughout his time as president of Spanish soccer, Rubiales overhauled the format of the Spanish Tremendous Cup in 2020, making a four-team mini-tournament and shifting the competitors to Saudi Arabia as a part of a deal that was reportedly price 40 million euros (then $42m) per event for the federation.
Prosecutors opened a probe of that deal in 2022 after leaked audio between Rubiales and then-Barcelona participant Gerard Pique relating to thousands and thousands of {dollars} in commissions.
Pique’s sports activities leisure firm Kosmos was concerned within the cope with the federation and Saudi Arabia.
An organization official advised The Related Press information company that no worker of Kosmos has been detained or positioned beneath investigation and no property of the corporate has been raided.
In a short preview of a recorded interview with Spanish tv channel La Sexta, Rubiales denied a sequence of what he known as false claims made by Spanish media.
“I don’t know what the choose has mentioned or what Civil Guard has investigated,” he mentioned. “The cash in my checking account is the results of my work and my financial savings.”