On Wednesday, Gerard Piqué made a vindictive tweet on X (formerly Twitter): “On a mental level, I’m a bull, no one can beat me. ” If bullfighting is practically ancient history in Catalonia, the former Barça defendera multi-card businessman, is however not spared from the barbs, and not only those thrown by his former partner Shakira.
So, if his group Kosmos was excluded from the organization of the Davis Cup in January, the 2023 edition still bears its mark. However, the group match between France and Switzerland was played on Tuesday in Manchester in front of almost empty stands, which inspired an ironic comment from Stan Wawrinka on Pique and the ITF [la fédération internationale de tennis] “. What followed was a little oratory contest between the Swiss and the Catalan, under the greedy gaze of other Internet users.
Kosmos is demanding up to $50 million (46.5 million euros) from the ITF for the termination of a contract concluded in 2018 for 25 years and $3 billion (2.8 billion euros). There is also talk of big money in another, more annoying affair, which involves the 2010 world champion with La Roja.
24 million for Pique, only 8 for Barça?
According to the Spanish daily El Mundowhich digs into information published in April 2022 by The Confidential, Piqué would have received a commission of 24 million euros in 2019, paid by Luis Rubiales. Yes, the resigning president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), carried away by the affair of the forced kiss of the player Jennifer Hermoso… Kosmos had in fact played a big role in the transfer of the organization of the Super Cup from Spain to Saudi Arabia.
El Mundo indicates that while the Catalan, then a Barça player, would have pocketed this tidy sum, and kept it secret, his club would have “only” received 8 million euros to accept the relocation of the competition.