Former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell is to stand trial for accusations of money laundering, Judge Carmen Lamela has confirmed.
Rosell is to be prosecuted along with his wife Marta Pineda, Andorran lawyer Joan Besoli and three others on charges of money laundering and ties to a criminal organisation, uncovered as part of Operation Rimet.
The magistrate has considered them part of a criminal group which they used to appropriate funds from the Brazilian Football Federation for the rights to broadcast their games as well as money from Nike's sponsorship contract with the Selecao.
That group of six was outlined to be a stable structure, according to the distribution of roles previously established by Rosell and Besoli, who managed it and owned a large number of companies along with bank accounts in Andorra.
They are accused of having laundered 14,973,328 million euros from various television deals and a further five million euros in an illicit manner as part of the Nike sponsorship.
The latter amount was the return of a loan according to RosellA, something which the judge immediately dismissed.
A contract was initially signed in 2006 by Terra Teixeira with an Arab company in the Cayman Islands for the rights to 24 Brazil games.
Both Teixeira (8,393,328 euros) and Rosell (6,580,000 euros) pocketed a payment which the CFB were unaware of at the time.
Rosell does have the right to appeal the trial and the judge has given 10 days for the prosecutor to request the opening of a trial or a dismissal.