The President of the RFEF, Luis Rubialesand the FC Barcelona player and owner of the Kosmos company, Gerard Piqué, were already negotiating in 2019 the sale of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia when the loss of category due to non-payment of the CF Reus left a vacancy in Second Division Bwhich would end up buying Andorra, a club owned by the Barcelona central defender since 2018. Even then there was a close relationship between them.
According to El Confidencial, Piqué would have asked Rubiales about the free place that he ended up buying for his team and, later, with the remodeling of Second B, he tried to get Andorra included in an easier groupfar from the Catalan teams, although without fortune.
Andorra rose to the Third Division in 2019 from the Catalan First Regional, which made it possible for them to replace Reus in Second B when the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) established the price of that place at 452,022 euros. The Andorran cause favored the territorial component of the applicants, which rewarded those registered in the Catalan Football Federation (FCF), according to article 194 of the General Regulations of the Federation.
The decision of the RFEF was not without controversy and some of the aspiring clubs (Zamora, Inter City of Alicante, Hospitalet, Linares, Jaén, Alcobendas…) to the Plaza del Reus insinuated a possible favorable treatment towards Andorra, pointing to a relationship between Piqué and Rubiales, today exposed with the case of the Super Cup.
In the following season, in the midst of a pandemic, the Second B was reformed, emerging the First RFEF. At that time, Piqué contacted Rubiales again to request a favorable treatment for his club, according to the conversations to which Confidencial has had access: “I wanted to ask you if you already have an idea of how the groups are going to be distributed teams in the different groups of 2B for next year and if you already knew where Andorra will be placed”.
Piqué tried to prevent his team from being grouped together with the Catalan teams, considering them stronger and, therefore, foreseeing a more difficult path to climb to the Second Division.
Related news
“If you can avoid putting us in the group with the Catalans, better,” the Blaugrana central defender told him. The RFEF president concluded the conversation by saying that he had been informed –“heard kitchen”-. However, FC Andorra ended up framed alongside Catalan rivals.
In his appearance last Monday, Gerard Piqué denied the RFEF’s favorable treatment for Andorra.