The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, received 232,000 euros from RCD Mallorca in 2008 through his company ‘Esfinge Veinte’ for an alleged “player report and a study of the Argentine market” of which there is no record and that he himself denied having carried out in 2014. The case has been uncovered by El Español and is reminiscent in many aspects of the Negreira case, which affects Barça.
This is an old issue that already aroused controversy in 2014 and for which Javier Tebas had to explain himself. The then vice president of LaLiga, who was between 2001 and 2010, received 232,000 euros from the Balearic team, something that was not illegal by virtue of his position. However, in a first invoice issued by Mallorca and signed by Pedro Terrasa, then manager of the club and a close friend of Tebas, the concept that appeared was “soccer report of the Argentine League for the 2008 market”.
The case was uncovered six years later by the Diari de Mallorca, which came to publish that original invoice. The outlet claimed that this information came to light as a result of a tax inspection to which Esfinge Veinte S.L., a Tebas company, was subjected, and explained that at the time it was surprising “because the club already had a specific manager to watch football of that country.” The newspaper also claimed that all invoices exceeding 200,000 euros, “by order of President Grande, the signatures of Pedro Terrasa and Nando Pons (sports director) should appear. Surprisingly, in this payment to Esfinge Veinte S.L. only the signature of the then manager appearsâ€.
The information adds that “members of the Mallorca coaching staff at that time, who preferred to remain anonymous, expressed their conviction that this report on Argentine soccer players was never written.”
At that time, Javier Tebas sent the media an invoice for the same amount but with a different concept: “Commission for the intermediation of the agents of the player Guillermo Ariel Pereyra in the transfer to Lokomotiv.” The document was dated April 1, 2008, but it was not signed by Pedro Terrasa. Thebes explained that same day, April 9, 2014, that the invoice corresponded “to the concept of intervention in the transfer of Guillermo Pereira, according to a request that Real Mallorca made to the player’s agents.”
“The only intervention I had in the player’s operation was legal advice for it and especially the contracting in Russia, since the player was very concerned with his payment guarantees,” said the current president of the LFP. Finally, the then manager of Mallorca and a friend of Tebas, Pedro Terrasa, insisted that the correct invoice was the one that Tebas had sent to the media, and assured that it was never paid for the preparation of a report on Argentine soccer players. He attributed the fact that the concept specified “Argentine League footballers report” to an error.
Since the early 1990s, Tebas has worked for at least 11 First and Second Division teams. Among the long list of ‘services’ is included having been an adviser to Piterman, Ruiz Mateos and Lopera, a purchase-sale intermediary and manager of clubs and a lawyer for players and coaches. In the case of Mallorca, he came to have 15% of shares after buying them from Mateu Alemany, then a great friend of his, in 2010, titles valued at almost 500,000 euros. In 2012 it was Pedro Terrasa who acquired that percentage to become a Director of the club.
In the midst of the storm of the Negreira Case, Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Federation, compared EnrÃquez Negreira with Javier Tebas for the payments that the current president of LaLiga received from the teams that make up the competition: “What Negreira did It was horrible: allegedly receiving money from a club while he was vice president of the Referees Technical Committee. Javier Tebas has been vice president of LaLiga for many years and has been receiving money from many clubs. I don’t know what is more serious. So, let’s receive advice from whoever can give it,” he said.
