Article by Aurelian Botezatu – Published Tuesday, 12 May 2026, 09:33 / Updated Tuesday, 12 May 2026 09:33
Former Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has been charged with “insider trading”.
Specifically, Pique purchased shares in an occupational health and safety company two days before it was taken over. The €200,000 fine imposed on Pique was announced on Monday by the CNMV, Spain's market regulator, which said he had committed “a very serious offence”.
Gerard Pique bought 104,166 shares in Aspy Global Services
The CNMV stated that on January 20, 2021, the former world champion bought 104,166 shares in Aspy Global Services, a workplace health and safety company, after a businessman told him that Atrys Health was in talks to acquire Aspy.
On January 26, 2021, Atrys launched a €223 million bid for Aspy. Between the day Pique bought the shares and the market close on January 27, when he sold them, Aspy's share price rose by almost 20%.
Spain's market regulator did not say how much money the former Barcelona star made from the deal, but the fines can be up to four times the profits made from illicit activities.
Gerard Pique has been suspended for 6 rounds by the Disciplinary Commission of the Spanish Federation
Pique grabbed the headlines and otherwise. Patron of the football team FC Andorra, he was recently suspended for 6 rounds by the Disciplinary Commission of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), after the incidents that took place in a match with Albacete (0-1), from the second Spanish league.
In addition to the 6 stages of suspension, The commission banned the former Barcelona defender from exercising his duties as owner of the Andorran club for a period of 2 months.
According to a statement from the RFEF, he would have behaved “slightly violently” towards the referees after the match. Piqué's aggressive attitude was considered “a violation of the dignity and decency of sport”.
Gerard Pique, to the referee: “You better leave with an escort, so that nothing happens to you”
The incidents broke out after Albacete's goal in the 86th minute. The players and officials of Andorra, led by the former Spanish international, claimed that they had witnessed a foul beforehand, but did not convince the referee Alonso de Ena Wolf (33 years old).
Ena Wolf later showed 4 red cards to those on the hosts' bench, including coach Carles Manso (33). In his match report, the referee mentioned that he had been threatened by Piqué in the tunnel leading to the dressing room after the final whistle: “You better leave with an escort so nothing happens to you. In another country, you would be beaten, but here, in Andorra, we are a civilized country”.
