Fernando Roig cleared as Castellón court quashes Villarreal fictitious invoice convictions | OneFootball

According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, the Castellón Provincial Court has overturned the 2024 convictions over invoices for works at El Madrigal and the José Manuel Llaneza training complex in 2004-2005, acquitting Villarreal president Fernando Roig, then managing directors Manuel Sarrión and Miguel Pérez, and the other defendants.

The ruling is dated 14 September 2026, was notified on 24 September, and allows no further appeal.

The court did not deny the existence of fictitious invoices, finding a billing chain from subcontractors to Spain Ges-Pro, then EVC, and finally Villarreal, with some sums exceeding work actually done. Its decisive finding was that neither the club nor its directors were proven to know the falsity or to have taken part in deliberate VAT fraud.

Judges noted verbal, lump sum contracting, no prior budget and limited oversight, with invoices approved without proper checks. They called this short of diligent management, yet said poor control alone does not prove criminal collusion. The works were carried out under time pressure and the club paid the invoices with VAT.

Investigators did not establish that money returned to Villarreal after leaving its accounts. Some withdrawals ended up within Spain Ges-Pro, but no return to the club or tax benefit was shown. The court also questioned the method used to compute the allegedly defrauded VAT.

Administrators of EVC and Spain Ges-Pro were likewise acquitted, though the court maintained there were fictitious billing manoeuvres in that chain. For subcontractors convicted of document falsity, it held the standalone offence was time-barred before proceedings began in July 2009. The first-instance court had imposed five months and 29 days per count on Roig, Sarrión and Pérez, and ordered €187,840 for 2004 VAT and €337,600 for 2005, all now quashed, with costs in both instances declared ex officio.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo

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