The UDEF agents who were in charge of investigating the case of the former president of FC Barcelona Sandro Rossell included in their reports data obtained from the ‘blog’ of a supposed informer who was captured by the commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo, as can be verified in the official letters that the Police sent to the Central Court of Instruction number 3, which instructed the case in the National High Court.
On June 6, 2015, the then chief prosecutor of the National High Court, Javier Zaragoza, decided to open an investigation against several businessmen, including Sandro Rossell. The Public Ministry had received information from the FBI about alleged illegal charges in relation to FIFA, which pointed to businessmen Julio César Rocha and Rafael Esquivel. And sideways, Washington also pointed to the former president of FC Barcelonawho would have entered “millionaire transfers”.
Months later, specifically on February 1, 2016, the UDEF prepared a first report that already clearly pointed out the alleged irregularities committed by Rosell, who was linked to the collection of bribes in relation to the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. The investigation progressed in the National Court, which ended up decreeing the entry into prison of the former president of Barça, who remained in preventive detention for almost two years. However, the court ended up exonerating the former director of the Catalan club.
The ‘Operation Catalonia’
On the dates in which he was secretly investigated in the National High Court, Rosell was already considered a priority objective of the so-called “Operation Catalonia”, a vigilante investigation promoted by the Government of Mariano Rajoy against the Catalan separatists. As he revealed THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAINmedium of the Prensa Ibérica group to which this newspaper also belongs, the former president of FC Barcelona had been pointed out by Villarejo, who in January 2014 had met, under a false name, with the informer José Luis P. to obtain information about Rosell , as stated in the agendas.
A recording released by ‘The Mon‘ shows that already in November 2012 the then president of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, had commissioned Villarejo to include Rosell in “Operation Catalonia”. And according to the annotations he did, because he entrusted the former inspector Antonio Giménez Raso, who received funds reserved for these works, to “launch” the investigation against the former president of the Blaugrana club.
Thus, both Villarejo and Police Inspector Antonio Giménez Raso met with José Luis P., promoter of the blog ‘La Transparencia de Sandro Rosell’, in which the alleged irregularities in the economic activities of the former Catalan manager were denounced.
Villarejo’s annotations
Different annotations by Villarejo show the contacts of the promoters of “Operation Catalonia” with José Luis P., who in conversation with this newspaper admits having talked about Rosell, but categorically rejects having collaborated with the retired commissioner’s vigilante plan against the Catalan independence politicians. José Luis P. explains that he did not know that he had met with Villarejo until years later, since the commissioner used the operational name of “José Javier Hidalgo Estévez” in the meetings.who was supposedly a “journalist and lawyer” with important contacts in the National High Court.
In the ‘blog’ of Villarejo’s confidant there is still a recording from May 2017 of a telephone call made by a police officer, responsible for the operation in which the former president of Barça was arrested, in which the agent warned of the arrest of Rosell. “Jose Luis, [te llamo] to tell you a quick thing, so you can see that your efforts have not been in vain“, says the police “chief”, who is interrupted by the informant.
“Rosell has been arrested”
“I know that Sandro Rosell has been arrested. It seems that at least one has fallen. I have been confirmed since USA that Teixeira has been arrested [expresidente de la Federación Brasileña de Fútbol], Sandro’s wife is detained……”, continues the complainant. “I can’t help you there anymore…. What has come out is public”, continues the supposed police agent, who is again interrupted by Pérez: “Yes, yes, yes, don’t worry, I fully understand, don’t worry. At the moment the day is being wonderful and it has cost me a lot to get here and without help, you know and without means”, he concludes. After publishing this newspaper Villarejo’s annotations about Rosell, the commissioner himself acknowledged in an interview with TV3 have information about the police investigation, at the same time he offered to provide this documentation to the lawyer of the former president of Barça.
In the same way, THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAIN was able to confirm that the reports of the UDEF that served to accuse Sandro Rosell included allusions to the publications that José Luis P. made in the ‘blog’ ‘La Transparencia de Sandro Rosell’. Specifically, in the first police official letter, dated February 1, 2016, the agent qualifies this blog as a “public information medium”, and refers to it to recall that the former president of Barça had been seized by the Spanish subsidiary of the Swiss company ISL. This was one more indication, according to the report, against Rosellas this company had been accused of having paid commissions to the former president of the Brazilian Football Federation, Ricardo Teixeira.
“Extended” information
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The second police report on Rosell, dated March 31, 2016, also included a reference to the publications of ‘La Transparencia de Sandro Rosell’. And he did it in relation to the alleged collection of commissions from the former president of Barça as a result of a friendly match held in Qatar in 2010 between Argentina and Brazil. The data provided in the ‘blog’ served UDEF as “expanding” information on the evidence against Rosell, who was acquitted in the trial held at the National High Court.
“There is knowledge of public information that indicates the link between the Qatari company that financed the match, GSSG, and the Spanish business group Acciona. Various media echo this information, including the one exposed here [La Transparencia de Sandro Rosell]”, recalls the police report, which later highlights that the businesswoman Sol Daurella, wife of the former vice president of FC Barcelona Carles Vilarrubí and therefore number two of Rosell, had been part of the board of directors of Acciona. For this reason, the UDEF considered in its report that the information from the ‘blog’ added “one more indication of the link between the Qatari company that financed the match and Sandro Rosell”.