El Confidencial has released new Whatsapp messages between Sergio Ramos and Luis Rubiales. After it was announced last week that Ramos would have argued with the president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) about World Cup premiums and help with Ballon d’Or wins, the newspaper is now opening a book about Ramos’ complaint about the arbitration at Barcelona. The then-Real Madrid defender reported Rubiales after a clear VAR misstep in favor of the arch-rival, who was dismissed as a competition distortion. Ramos suggested intervention and was not amused when Rubiales refused.
On January 20, Barcelona played at home against Legánes, which was then still in a fierce battle for the championship with, among others, Real Madrid. Barcelona won 3-1, thanks in part to a questionable goal from Luis Suárez. The then striker of the Catalans visibly hindered goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar in making the 2-1; an observation that Ramos also made. “Have you seen Suarez’s offense?”, can be read in the leaked conversations with Rubiales. “It’s a disgrace what the umpires are doing. A joke.”
“We are starting to get seriously concerned about the VAR problem,” Ramos continued. “Especially at Barca.” Rubiales replied in a formal tone hours later. “Good afternoon, Sergio. You are the captain of the national team, you have hundreds or thousands of matches behind you and you know better than anyone that sometimes there are different opinions about the same events. You also know that I do not get involved in these kinds of issues said the Spanish federation president.
Rubiales’ reaction went badly wrong with Ramos. †Enormous politically correct, thank you. I was waiting for a personal opinion on yesterday’s Barcelona. It is a scandal and they can no longer miss the title.” Ramos’ prediction turned out to be correct: Barcelona did indeed become champions, followed by Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid on 11 and 19 points respectively.
Last week brought El Confidencial also other controversial talks between Ramos and the Spanish federation president. “Either you increase what we discussed for the semi-finals, or there will come shit”, the 36-year-old defender is said to have sent the chairman about the premiums surrounding the 2018 World Cup. Ramos Rubiales also appeared to have asked for help in winning the Ballon d’Or. “You know I’ve never asked you for anything, but today I’m doing it because I believe it’s a special year because of my achievements. I want you to help me and reach out to some key people at UEFA and in your network for the Ballon d’Or,” he wrote in 2019.
In April came El Confidencial with equally controversial revelations about Gerard Piqué and the federation chairman. The Barcelona defender is said to have asked for a favorable classification from his club FC Andorra, as the 40 Spanish clubs in the third division are classified by region. “The Catalan teams are the strongest, if you put us in another region, it won’t make any big changes,” Piqué told Rubiales, among others. Not much later, requests from the native Catalan to the federation president leaked out to get him to the Olympic Games. “I’m not sure about this, I don’t want to put pressure on the trainer,” Rubiales said at the time.
Most likely, both of Rubiales’ conversations with the Spanish defenders are part of a “podcast-format documentary series.” The podcast, ‘Pundonor Rubiales’ (‘Honorary Rubiales’, ed.) reveals the investigative paper’s findings into ‘the dark side of Spanish football’ and sheds light on ‘Rubiales’ management at the head of the RFEF and his relationship with players such as Piqué and Ramos’. “Money, espionage, exchange of favors and the link between political power and the higher echelons of football appear in this production,” the newspaper reports on its official website.