The documents revealed by The Objective newspaper shocked many people about a network of corruption in football. Those are specifically the audio messages exchanged between the former Barca star duo, Gerard Pique and Lionel Messi, with former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales, and UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin. This is considered evidence that will detonate a huge scandal in football.
According to what is mentioned, the above mentioned figures have made efforts to “redirect” funds from UEFA to some stars, with the aim of compensating for the lost wages they suffered due to the pandemic. Covid-19.
The first conversation took place on April 2, 2020 via a phone call. In it, Pique, with Messi’s authorization, discussed with Rubiales the Argentine star’s concerns about salary reduction. It is important to know that Messi’s former club Barca previously proposed a salary reduction of up to 70% for the entire team, to cope with the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
An hour after the above call, former RFEF president Luis Rubiales contacted Ceferin, UEFA president, via audio message on WhatsApp, and Rubiales raised Messi’s concerns about his salary. In particular, Rubiales raised the possibility of using money from the UEFS fund to compensate for financial losses of “stars”. However, both Rubiales and Ceferin are aware that if this becomes public, it will negatively affect those who benefit from the agreement.
Therefore, Rubiales emphasized that the “confidentiality” of the negotiations must be maintained. This is a request that Messi, the star currently playing for Inter Miami Club, has made before. “They (referring to Pique and Messi) told me clearly, please, no one finds out that we are whining about salary cuts because if people find out, they will kill us me”, Rubiales affirmed, “I sent you this recording with a message from Messi. This is my voice, but it is the message that Messi wants to convey.” In response, Ceferin assured that no one would find out anything.
Rubiales then suggested to Ceferin that the money could be redirected in a way that would benefit Messi and the other affected players. “I would say it’s important for us to have Messi and the rest with us. Everything else can be arranged,” Rubiales said.
After an exchange of WhatsApp messages between Rubiales and Ceferin, Rubiales contacted former Barcelona defender Pique and expressed his wish to “be able to help them”. Accordingly, an exchange of messages was carried out between Pique, Rubiales and Messi. During this conversation, they discussed the proposal that the former RFEF president had to present to Ceferin to compensate some professional players for the economic damage caused by Covid-19.
Two days after this conversation, on April 4, 2020, Rubiales contacted Ceferin again via WhatsApp. According to the message, the two continued to discuss how to compensate for the players’ salary cuts. In his message, former president of the Spanish Football Federation, Rubiales asked Ceferin if the UEFA president had considered this proposal. At the same time, Rubiales also suggested that, if this proposal is implemented, Ceferin should tell Messi at the right time.
Rubiales also highlighted Messi’s fear of the negotiations becoming public, and revealed Messi was afraid someone would know Rubiales and Ceferin were concerned about the stars’ salaries. Messi’s concerns are not unfounded, because if the problem is brought to light, it will also benefit players with lower incomes.
Rubiales sent Pique screenshots of the conversation with Ceferin and the former Barca defender shared them with Messi. This way, everyone involved in the conversation is kept informed of the progress in real time when the funds can be disbursed.
On April 6, 2020, Rubiales sent Ceferin a proposal, which suggested 4% of the royalties for broadcast rights of all UEFA matches, which were previously distributed in a specific way among member football associations. , will be restructured to allocate compensation to stars whose salaries have been cut due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“RFEF will allocate about 50% of the total amount brought in to the reserve fund. The fund will pay for salary reductions for players in League One, League Two, League Three, Women’s Football and Futsal. The remaining 50% will be allocated according to current needs specifically for clubs that during the Covid-19 crisis do not agree to reduce salaries for their players (25% for professional clubs and 25% for non-playing clubs). unprofessional).
This mechanism will be in place for the period necessary to fully or substantially cover the salary reduction caused to the players. We calculate that amount to be no less than 50 million euros,” Rubiales explained in an expansion proposal. In particular, in a conversation with Pique on April 15, 2020, Rubiales also promised to let Pique and Messi pocket 30 million euros to use at their discretion once the money from UEFA is poured in.
The information given by The Objective newspaper has indeed revealed a darkness that no one would have expected with the involvement of Messi, the star who won the Golden Ball title 8 times.
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