One of the victims in the Real Madrid academy sex video scandal has spoken out about the incident, detailing the events on the day and the aftermath. Three Real Madrid academy players and one Real Madrid C player were taken in for questioning by the police last week, on suspicion of distributing sexual content without consent, and distributing sexual content of a minor.
Speaking to Diario AS, ‘Sofia’ as she is named for her anonymity, explained that the incident took place on the 15th of June in Gran Canaria, on the Canary Islands. Both the players involved and the three girls involved in the incident were on holiday at the time.
Sofia described how the two groups, four footballers and three girls, one of whom was underage, spent the afternoon with the footballers at a private pool with an adjacent ‘cabin’ as it is described.
“At one point, my younger friend and I entered a space that had curtains and started playing the typical games you play at that age, nonsense. At one point something happens with my friend, which is what is on the news and is also true (a consensual relationship).”
“A third friend was with the other footballer; The fourth boy stays outside, at the main pool. They had nothing to do with what happened. At one point, during the events, I observed how one of the boys recorded my friend. First I saw the cell phone and when I looked away I observed how that cell phone was passed to another of the players, as if from one hand to another. It’s true that I don’t know if they were recording at that given moment, but I do know that when we went out after all that happened, the three of us friends talked and we told each other that we thought they had recorded us.”
After the incident, Sofia and her friend confronted the group of footballers, stressing that they were perfectly civil in their request to delete the videos.
“My underage friend and I asked them to please delete those videos, and also to do it in front of us, but both from the gallery and from the recycle bin of the phone. They showed us about five videos. They played us one in which the two of us were seen in the background and they deleted it. What was happening? That at the moment when we said that we had to talk to them, they must have had time to send the video to other phones, something that clearly happened.”
The original police complaint, made by the mother of the underage girl, did not occur until the sixth of September. Sofia explains that they were not aware that the video was being distributed until August, when the boyfriend of her underage friend was shown the video.
She also declared that her impression is that some footballers feel they can act with impunity because of their position in society.
“I think they feel so protected because they are on big teams, so to speak, or in academies where they have security and protection. Then, they will say ‘I don’t care about doing this.’ I am protected. No matter what happens, if I have money, I have lawyers and I buy whatever I want. Everything is done with money.”
“When these kids find themselves in this situation, the team can give them everything. They don’t care if they do this today or tomorrow. I don’t want to say that they are all like that, but unfortunately there are some like that. This is not going to stop, and there will be more cases like these. It is something that is not being worked on currently. It is not explained, no information is given about how wrong it is to do this, and it continues to be used against women.”
This is just the latest criminal sex scandal to occur in Spanish football over the last year, which sees Dani Alves currently awaiting trial for rape, Santi Mina convicted of rape awaiting appeal, amid a number of cases. The footballers are yet to be charged, as the police investigation continues.
