The RFEF ethics committee reveals that Camps, Rubiales’ right-hand man, asked for support for the bets because they “collected” from them

2024-03-24 19:54:04

The professor at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) Araceli Mangaswhich was part of the Ethics Section of the Jurisdictional Committee of the Real spanish soccer federation (RFEF) under the presidency of Luis Rubialeshe assured in his statement as a witness before the judge of the Super Cup caseDelia Rodrigo, that the then general secretary of the federative body, Andreu Camps, asked him to ““will make his opposition more flexible” to sports betting because the Federation itself “collected” from companies in the sector.

This is stated in the statement given by this professor of Public International Law and International Relations on February 23 in the Court of Investigation and First Instance number 4 of Majadahonda (Madrid): “He asked me to change, to make it more flexible, and he told me that the Federation collected money from bets“Araceli Mangas answered when asked if the former secretary general of the Federation, Andreu Camps, had demanded a modification of the ethical code.

In any case, Araceli Mangas continued, she made it clear to Camps, considered the right hand of the former president of the RFEF Luis Rubiales, that He was not going to allow the footballers to earn money from the game..

“School hours”

However, the files opened by the ethics committee did not have any significance, according to the testimony of the professor, who gave an example to the judge. Delia Rodrigo: “The vice president was not aware of an important report we made about the malpractice that occurred on the part of soccer players advertising in the media during school hours, at children’s hours advertising sports betting,” highlighted this professor from the Complutense University of Madrid.

In the same sense, Mangas asserted that those responsible for the RFEF ethics committee They had “very clear ideas,” and that is why a report was presented “in February or March [de 2020] so that these behaviors could be taken care of that were clearly outside FIFA’s ethical code, including the Spanish Code of Ethics.

The former general secretary of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Andreu Camps. / EFE

“What he spoke to me [Andreu Camps] by phone, and I don’t know if I still have any email, it’s because he didn’t like how we had restricted the possibility of participating in sports betting,” continued this professor, who resigned from her position because she came to the conclusion that Rubiales and his leadership used the ethics committee: “I felt uncomfortable, I felt used, I realized that all the work I did was of no use, we were an umbrella, we were a screen for society and the media.“, complete.

In her testimony, Professor Araceli Mangas also said that the members of the ethics committee complained that what they were doing “wasn’t going anywhere.” “I keep an email in which we complained that In the files that we had opened, the instructors did not report to us what they were doingand they did nothing with the reports we had sent,” he lamented.

The Super Cup in Arabia

In relation to the agreement for celebrate the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, This professor defended that no one mentioned to them that there was a contract related to this competition and that although they approved a report, it was not mandatory and had not been required by the RFEF.

In this sense, he explained that the ethics committee was not the one to say whether or not it was necessary to celebrate in Saudi Arabia because “that was part of the RFEF’s competence”, and that the only thing they could do was “make it clear that financial reasons are not the only ones that should lead a competition outside of Spanish territory“, informa Europa Press.

On the other hand, Mangas explained that they did not have “the slightest knowledge that there could be that type of transaction.” –due to the intervention of the Kosmos company, owned by former FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué– and added that if they had been aware of illegal commissions they would have acted because “they were not allowed.”

“In light of the current ethical code, this behavior would have been prosecutable. (…) and it could have led to a significant sanction because there is a very clear conflict of interest,” he indicated, later adding that Piqué was also part of the competition and therefore there was an action that could be “fraudulent.”