The Objective uncovered WhatsApp audios between Luis Rubiales and Gerard Piqué, where the latter was concerned over the 70% pay cut Barcelona players had to endure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually, according to the report, Piqué and Rubiales worked in conjunction with UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin to divert funds in the range of 30 million euros to alleviate the COVID-19 cuts.
Stuck in the middle is Lionel Messi, who reportedly agreed to participate in the “scam” and requested that confidentiality be highly maintained throughout the whole process.
The report indicates that for three months, Piqué and Messi negotiated with UEFA and Rubiales, with damning audios explaining how the funds would be diverted from TV broadcast rights and how Aleksander Ceferin “favored” Barcelona over Real Madrid, noting his disdain for Real Madrid President Florentino Perez.
New Developments
Since the publication of The Objective article, sources from both UEFA and the Spanish FA spoke with El Español on Wednesday evening. They indicated that in the meeting between Messi and Ceferin, Messi conveyed the urgency of creating a fund primarily intended for the neediest players, and he expressed that he would prefer “not to get paid if there is no money to help everyone.”
The sources also indicated that the creation of these funds is perfectly legal, as FIFA agreed with FIFPro, the union for all soccer players around the world, on the creation of a similar fund during the pandemic to provide financial assistance to those players to whom the clubs owe contractual payments and who do not have the opportunity to receive them.
The sources indicate that the fund was never created by UEFA, and the players eventually negotiated with Barcelona for subsidiary payments. Messi and Piqué, along with some of their teammates, reached an agreement with Barcelona but are said to still be owed part of said payments.
Since the audios were leaked, disgraced former Spanish FA President Luis Rubiales has declined to make statements to El Español.
During the pandemic, the Spanish FA received 200 million euros from UEFA. The funds were distributed equally to each federation in the region. The funds were reportedly used to pay for medical supplies, such as masks, and overdue salaries, with the use of the money needing to be accounted for to FIFA.