Luis Rubiales, from a second-line footballer to the president of an association marked by scandals

– I am a fighter and an honest guy. A word about Luis Rubiales, which tries to be an example of resilience. “When I was one month old, my older sister fell on me and broke my legs from top to bottom. The doctor told my father that his son I wanted to be anything but a football player“, he told on one occasion. But he devoted himself to the ball business. The lawyer by training, trade unionist and executive visits the Cuatro program he presented this Tuesday Risto Mejide, travels with Chester (22:50).

Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he grew up in the city of Motril in Granada. With his father as a teacher and his mother as a hairdresser, he developed his sports career — without exception — in teams from the south. However, he stood out the most in the band Levante. He became the captain of the granote team with which he made his debut in the First League in August 2004, coming on as a substitute in a match against Real Sociedad. And he even named one of the club’s fans, Rubiales 17. He did, because years later the Canaries scandals forced fans to change his name.

For his last matches as a footballer, he joined the Scottish club Hamilton Academical. But he had his head set on higher levels than second-tier teams. Graduated graduate in law and holder of the Sports Management courseIn 2008, he encouraged Levante to go on strike due to non-payment for two years.

At that time, he began to establish relations with Association of Spanish Football Players (AFE). Therefore, he decided to run in the elections for the president of the organization. The date of the vote was set for March 22, 2010. However, the previous president, Gerardo González Movilla, withdrew his candidacy a few days earlier, which caused Rubiales became the new president.

Since assuming the position, he has faced Xavier Thebes, President of the league. At the same time, he completed his law studies and served as the president of the Association of Professional Athletes (MDP), where he doubled the payment of external services in two years and established an investment control commission composed of like-minded people with dubious qualifications.

A president marked by scandals

But apart from that, he started to position himself as a new successor Angel Maria Villar in front Spanish Football Federationa position he joined in May 2018. Since his arrival at the organization, the Canarian leader has been involved in controversies that have tarnished his public image.

In 2021, he was acquitted of a legal proceedings with Yasmina Eid-Macheh. The architect accused him of physical assault and non-payment. According to her, the man from Canaria owed her 121,544.37 euros for the renovation of the apartment where she lived, and he also told the judges that he tried to physically attack her when she asked for money. He got trials. One of the first battles he will have to deal with.

The most popular was Super Cup files. Last year, the compromising conversations of the president of the association and Gerard Pique (since he is still an active Barcelona player). In them, both concluded agreements to take the Spanish Super Cup Saudi Arabia.

Rubiales agreed with the former Barca player millionaire commission for the transmission of the competition to that country. According to the data he published at the time Confidentiallyin the contract signed with Sela, a Saudi public company, the federal entity guarantees a payment of 40 million euros for each edition of the tournament, while Cosmos he takes four million for each of the six exercises signed with this country.

In the conversations that both of them had, it became clear how the negotiations regarding the distribution of money between the participants took place. “Let’s see, Rubi, it’s a matter of money; If they (Real Madrid) were to go for eight, man, you pay eight to Madrid and eight to Barcelona… the others are paid two and one… that’s 19, and you keep the federation six kilos, man. Before you’re nothing, you’re six kilos. And we squeeze Saudi Arabia and maybe take it out… We tell them if not, Madrid will not go… and we will take one or two more clubs out of it…», Piqué explains in one of the audio recordings.

Then they made an agreement with the Arabs, even though it is a country that does not respect human rights and discriminates against women. “Gary, congratulations. And I don’t mean yesterday’s great game or your goal. I think it is already after 12 and therefore the agreement with Saudi Arabia is already firm. Hugs, thanks for everything and I’m here for anything you need. Take care, my friend,” Rubiales moved to Piqué.

“This is the mafia”

The association then defended itself that there was nothing illegal in the six-year contract, that the assembly approved all the bills presented by Rubiales, and that the published audio recordings were hacked. Despite the scandal that arose, the president did not think about resigning. In his speech, he admitted that he felt persecuted and a victim of a campaign of discredit and manipulation.

“If someone is capable of taking information from my phone, where I have recordings and photos with my daughters, and lie, there is no doubt that I am on the good side and I will continue. I am a fighter and an honest guy. Lies cannot end good governance“, he commented.

He admitted that he is worried about his family and the Barca defender, and has gone so far as not to drink or smoke, but that he cannot guarantee that “He’s not going to put a bag of cocaine in the trunk of a car tomorrow.” “This is the mafia. I don’t think it gets to the point where you see me dead in a ditch with a bullet in the back of my head.but I feel violated in my rights”, he added.

Salary increase and housing assistance

After the agreement to take the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, the president of the association more than doubled his salary to reach a monthly net salary of almost 29,000 euros. According to their payroll, at least in December 2020, he received an additional 237,000 euros.

The documents he discovered Confidentiallyshow that Rubiales went from 12,984.86 euros per month in 2020 to 29,619.46 euros tax-free in 2021, with the aforementioned extraordinary payment of 237,000 euros in December.

The report on the general intervention of the state administration also revealed that he is the head of Spanish football received housing assistance of around 3,100 euros per month, despite not being eligible for it. Luis Rubiales bought a luxury penthouse with two floors and a private pool in Madrid for approximately 2 million euros.

In addition, at the General Assembly of the alliance held in December last year, the organization revealed its economic capacity and financial autonomy, citing it at 382 million euros. A figure that was only surpassed — also in 2022 — when the entity chaired by Rubiales had 406 million.

Mountain house Salobrena

Rubiales, in conflict with Tebas and David Aganza (whom he would spy on by hiring a detective agency), was also investigated by the anti-corruption prosecution for party in a house in Salobreña in August 2020. Both he and several managers were accused of used federation corporate bank cards to pay the expenses related to the mentioned party “with a group of eight or ten young girls”. The association denied that an alleged orgy took place in the house and explained that it was only a work meeting of Rubiales and his associates.

One of the last scandals he was involved in also arose from the leaking of a private conversation with his father on WhatsApp. Rubiales called “pathetic” four clubs in the Spanish league: the Atletico Madridhe Valencia, he Seville and Villarreal. As he himself recognized, the last three are the teams he likes the worst.

Position on the Super League

On several occasions Luis Rubiales It proved to be the complete opposite of the Super League. “It was important that all of Europe, associations led by UEFA, leagues and clubs were together when it was necessary to say no to this project. If something makes football special, if it makes it beautiful, it is that from a child who starts competing at the age of ten or eleven to a player of a big team in the Champions League, they can achieve their goals”, he commented.

Last February he blamed Thebes for encouraging clubs to want to take part in it. “I think like UEFA and its president. The Champions League is the best club competition. It can be improved, but within football. UEFA is football in all its sectors. I respect other ways of thinking. You can get along with other people, but not in a way. It would be very important to recover Real Madrid and Barcelona. The best ambassador of the Superliga is not Florentino or Laporta, it is Javier Tebas. They make the poorest poor and the richest rich. They decapitalize the clubs. They are impoverishing La Liga. CVC (the investment fund with which the League formalized the contract) was a disastrous operation for football and favored a powerful group. It is disastrous, disastrous and illegal for us,” said the president of the Alliance.