The great leaking tanker of conversations between Spanish Football Federation President (RFEF) Luis Rubiales and two of the most iconic players in Spanish football history continues to produce headlines.
Earlier on Friday, it transpired that Sergio Ramos had been caught sending messages to Rubiales complaining about refereeing decisions in favour of Barcelona.
This of course comes off the back of a stream of audios released in April concerning Gerard Pique and the organisation of the Spanish Supercup.
Pique again finds himself in hot water, as El Confidencial revealed that the central defender tried to influence the calendar of the Spanish national team.
“Rubi, we have to speak about an issue that is very important for me and you need to do me this favour one way or another. I will explain. I can see that there is a match, which is Spain-Romania at the Wanda on Monday the 18th of November. Monday the 18th of November the Davis Cup starts in Madrid, as well. Shakira will do the inauguration, my partner will sing, we will put on a insane show, in the afternoon there will be matches.”
“Of course, if that same match between Spain and Romania at the Wanda is also on, we are cannibalising each other, we ruin each other. I don’t know what the calendar before is, I don’t know if it can be moved to Sunday, which would be perfect, I don’t know if you play Friday or Thursday… Let’s look at the calendar issue, but I know that you still haven’t started selling tickets and it would be possible to move it, therefore, let’s look at.”
Pique is the founder of the Kosmos group, which organises the Davis Cup and thus explains Pique’s interest in ensuring the event went as well as possible.
“Ok I will look to see if it is possible, I don’t know if it is possible, but if it is possible, we will try it,” responded Rubiales.
Mundo Deportivo carried these quotes but also remarked that in the end, the Spain match was played on the Monday.
Once again it appears that Pique has used his relationship with ‘Rubi’ to try and curry favour for his interests. Fortunately in this case, it appears that whatever Rubiales said, it had no impact on the Spanish national team.