A bank account belonging to Gerard Pique’s sports and entertainment company Kosmos has been embargoed by the judge investigating alleged corruption at the Spanish football federation (RFEF) during the presidency of Luis Rubiales from 2018 to 2023.
Pique and Kosmos were an intermediary in the deal which saw the Spanish Supercopa move to Saudi Arabia in 2019. That initiative was worth €240million over six seasons to the then financially struggling federation — with Kosmos also due a commission of €24m for their role, according to a report by Spanish media outlet El Confidencial.
The investigation under which Rubiales and a number of former federation executives have been arrested in recent weeks, codenamed Operacion Brodie, was set in motion by a formal legal complaint in May 2022 to a court in Majadahonda by Miguel Angel Galan over Kosmos’ involvement in the Supercopa deal.
Kosmos offices in Barcelona were not among the properties raided by Spanish police in mid-March, and no Kosmos executives are known to have been ordered to appear in front of the judge.
Reports in Spain, based on leaks from the investigation, have previously claimed that Rubiales insisted during his negotiations with the Saudi government’s Sela sports marketing body that the federation would retire from the deal if the commission was not paid to Kosmos.
Leaked audios and text messages have also suggested that Pique was involved in advising Rubiales about how to best deal with the Saudis, and to ensure Clasico giants Real Madrid and Barcelona were on board by guaranteeing them a large share of the money paid to participants.
Kosmos has been cooperating with the Spanish authorities, and has previously said they believe there was no wrongdoing in their agreement with the Saudis.
“Kosmos helped Sela, and we were paid by Sela, not by the RFEF,” Pique said in April 2022. “I’m not sorry (about getting involved), we did a very good job. We did nothing wrong – not legally, nor morally.”
Kosmos was established in 2017, with Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Japanese conglomerate Rakuten as another co-founder. The Barcelona-based company has different sports and media interests and investments, including running tennis’ Davis Cup from 2019 to 2023, owning Segunda Division side Andorra and creating the King’s League seven-a-side football tournaments.
(Agustin Cuevas/Getty Images)
