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Barcelona veteran Gerard Pique finds himself in controversy after a leaked audio tape suggests he played a part in taking the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabian shores. The clip was leaked by a group of hackers and reveals a conversation between the Spanish defender and Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta held a press conference on Tuesday to address the issue of an invasion at Camp Nou by Eintracht Frankfurt fans during their Europa League clash. However, the Barcelona centre-back's leaked audio tape had gone viral by the time Laporta's press conference was organized and he was quizzed about Pique's controversy as well.
As reported by Sport, the club president said:
"He already gave his explanations yesterday. I have nothing more to say. I don't know anything about it and I'm not going to comment on something I don't know in depth."
RFEF changed the format of the Supercopa de Espana in 2020 and converted it into a final-four tournament contested between the winners and runners-up of Copa del Rey and La Liga. The competition was moved to Saudi Arabia in what would prove to be a hugely profitable transaction for the federation, reportedly worth €40 million per edition of the tournament.
The former Spanish international's company, Kosmos, is suspected to have played a part in convincing the RFEF to move the Supercopa de Espana abroad. According to the El Confidencial newspaper, Kosmos will earn €4m-per-tournament for six years for helping with the negotiations.
Barcelona's Pique suggests that his involvement to take the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia was not illegal
After the hackers leaked his conversations with Luis Rubiales, the 35-year old took to his Twitch channel to explain his part of the story. He thinks there is nothing in the incident that he should be apologetic about and that the Spaniard was just minding his business interests which lie away from the football field.
The Barcelona centre-back said on his Twitch stream:
"Everything we have done is legal, I'm going to expose my part in the conflict of interest, I want to show my face because I have nothing to hide. I am proud of what we do at Kosmos."
Pique suggests that the intention behind making changes in the format of the tournament was only to make it more enjoyable for the viewers.
He believes the financial aspect is just a by-product of it.
"We wanted to change the format of the competition and make it more interesting for the viewer. That has repercussions on income. The president, Luis Rubiales, really liked the idea," the defender added.
The Barcelona veteran claims that all he did was bring an opportunity to RFEF through his company Kosmos. He firmly believes that the only thing illegal about the entire matter was the leaking of these private conversations.
