Luis Rubiales, the disgraced former Spanish soccer captain who was forced out after kissing a female player against her will, is facing fresh legal trouble after Spanish police were given permission to arrest him as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption and money laundering.
Investigators from Spain’s civil guard carried out a series of raids on Tuesday, including searches at the headquarters of the Spanish soccer federation on the outskirts of Madrid and a home owned by Mr Rubiales in the southern city of Granada.
The prosecutor’s office in Madrid said 11 houses and a number of other buildings were searched as part of an investigation into what it described as “alleged criminal acts related to corporate corruption, mismanagement and money laundering”.
Seven people were arrested on Tuesday but Mr Rubiales was not among them. He was in the Dominican Republic but is expected to return to Spain on April 6, according to a letter sent to the presiding judge by his lawyer. The Civil Guard of Spain was authorized to arrest him upon his arrival in Spain, if necessary.
A lawyer for Mr. Rubiales did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Investigators are looking into contracts related to the federation’s sale of lucrative rights to a prominent soccer tournament, the Spanish Super Cup, to Saudi Arabia in a deal brokered by one of Spain’s most famous players, Gerard Pique.
Mr Rubiales is also under investigation over allegations he hired detectives to spy on the head of Spain’s players’ union. misusing federation funds to pay personal expenses; and organizing a sex party — paid for with federation funds — in Granada in 2020 — all allegations that emerged after formal complaints were made to prosecutors.
Mr Rubiales, once one of the most powerful men in world football, saw his career crumble in the wake of his actions following Spain’s triumph at the Women’s World Cup final in Australia last year. In front of tens of thousands of fans at Sydney Stadium in Australia and millions more watching on television, Rubiales planted an unwanted kiss on the mouth of Spanish midfielder Jennifer Hermozo on the medal stand.
The episode resulted in an outcry in Spain and beyond, and a criminal complaint filed by Ms. Hermoso weeks after the tournament. That complaint allowed the Spanish authorities to open a case against Mr. Rubiales, and in January he testified at a hearing to determine whether he should be charged with sexual assault and coercion.
In January, a judge found enough evidence of wrongdoing to recommend that Mr. Rubiales stand trial for kissing and subsequently coercing Ms. Hermoso. If convicted of sexual assault, he can be sentenced to one to four years in prison.
Mr Rubiales, who had initially — and defiantly — refused to hand over his position as head of the Spanish federation amid furore over the kiss, eventually resigned after being temporarily suspended by soccer’s world governing body, FIFA. He was later banned from the sport for three years.
Even before the news that Mr. Rubiales might be arrested upon his return to Spain, it quickly became clear that he would be the focus of investigators. Images broadcast on Spanish television showed police officers holding a box with Mr Rubiales’ name on it among items seized from the Granada property.
The police operation was the latest twist in a stunning fall from grace for Mr Rubiales, whose influence in football once stretched beyond Spain’s borders. At the time of his resignation, just weeks before he was banned by FIFA, he was vice-president of UEFA, European football’s governing body, and one of the leaders of Spain’s bid to host the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco.
But even before his ouster, he had faced questions about his conduct. Bald and brash, Mr Rubiales first attracted international attention just months into his tenure as federation president when he fired the men’s national team coach just days before the first match at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
He later engaged in a years-long public feud with Javier Tebas, the equally outspoken president of Spain’s top soccer league, and was criticized for backing Spain women’s coach Jorge Vilda amid a player revolt.
In 2022, a leak of text and voice messages involving Mr Rubiales and Mr Pique caught the attention of Spanish police due to the reference to commissions paid to Mr Pique, still an active player at the time.
That’s when details emerged of the multi-year deal between Spain’s federation and Saudi Arabia in which the Gulf nation would pay 40 million euros a year (about $43 million) to host an expanded version of the Super Cup. The most striking revelation was Mr. Pique’s involvement, through his Kosmos holding company, in brokering the deal and the commission — 10 percent, or just over $4 million a year — he was to receive for his role.
Mr Pique, who was a defender for Spanish club FC Barcelona, and who would feature in the relocation of the match before his retirement at the end of 2022, denied any wrongdoing at the time. It is unclear whether he will be questioned as part of the ongoing police investigation.
A different Spanish soccer official, Miguel Ángel Galán, who heads the country’s national coaching training center, was the lead complainant in the Super Cup investigation. In an interview with a Spanish television network on Wednesday, Mr Galan, who denounced the Super Cup contracts and the commission paid to Mr Pique in statements to prosecutors, asked for the money to be returned.
The commission, Mr. Galán noted, was greater than that earned by at least one of the participating clubs.
