There is a lot of talk in the Spanish media about leaked audio fragments between Gerard Piqué and Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). Where previously there was a possible conflict of interest of the central defender of Barcelona with regard to the new arrangement of the Supercopa, new fragments show that the defender wanted to secure a place in the Olympic team of Spain with the help of Rubiales.
The new audio clips that El Confidencial publishes seem to confirm the influence that Piqué has with federation president Rubiales. The defender sent a message to Rubiales in 2019 asking for his help to secure a place in the Spanish Olympic team for the Tokyo Games. “You must do this for me, rubic† I really want to be in action at the Olympics,” you can hear. “We have to approach the coach (Luis de la Fuente, ed.) together, but this must remain a secret.”
Pique proposes in the tape to come to Madrid. “Then we’ll sit down with him (De la Fuente, ed.) clearly to Rubiales, who responds positively: “I informed the coach. He is the one who has to make the decisions, but of course he is happy that I lend him a hand. I would really like to see you go to the Olympics, but you must of course keep this conversation a secret.”
In a later conversation, Rubiales expressed more doubt about the matter. †gericI spoke to De la Fuente today and he told me he wants to wait for them to qualify, if that’s okay with you. When that’s done, he might talk to you. I’m not sure about this, I didn’t want to make suggestions or pressure him.” Each team active in the Olympics will be given the opportunity to enter three ‘dispensation players’. These players may be over the age of 21, which is the maximum age at which players are allowed to enter the tournament.
Rubiales was ultimately unable to influence De la Fuente enough to take Piqué to Japan: the trainer decided not to register him for the Olympic team. The Spanish coach preferred to use Marco Asensio, Dani Ceballos and Mikel Merino as dispensation players, as they were also part of the Spanish team’s qualifying campaign. In Tokyo, the Spaniards reached the final, where it lost in the final after extra time against defending champions and favorite Brazil (2-1).