Spanish football has once again found itself embroiled in another match-fixing scandal after two former presidents and for ex-board members of football club Osasuna have been charged with a host of misgivings, including misappropriation of funds, false accounting, falsifying documents and corruption.
The investigation reportedly involves the disappearance of €2.4 million from the club’s coffers, which went missing between November 2013 and June 2014. The two former presidents, Miguel Archanco and Patxi Izco, and the four ex-board members, Txuma Peralta, Angel Vizcay, Juan Pascual, and Diego Maquirriain were all arrested over a period of two days, the regional court of northern Navarra confirmed on Twitter.
Izco, Vizcay, Pascual, and Maquirriain have since been released, with Archanco’s bail set at €500,000. Unfortunately for Peralta, he was the only one who was denied bail.
If these administrative issues are enough to give Osasuna massive fits, it must be really rough going for the club these days because it’s still dealing with match-fixing allegations involving the same former figures in its management.
Archanco, in particular, is being eyed as a significant person-of-interest. Anti-corruption authorities are looking at him as a primary figure in allegations of match-fixing that allegedly occurred at the end of last season where €1.5 million was allegedly spent by the club to guarantee that results went their way. It’s worth noting that Archanco resigned from his post after the season ended when Osasuna was relegated to the Segunda Liga after 14 seasons in La Liga.
But according to reports by Diario de Navarra, the judge in charge of the proceedings believes that Osasuna’s match-fixing itch was also in full effect in the 2012-2013 La Liga season. The judge is reportedly investigating a game between Osasuna and Sevilla, which the former won, 2-1.
It seems that Osasuna’s match-fixing problems isn’t going away anytime soon. In addition to the latest allegations of match fixing and misappropriation of funds, the club also faced allegations that it had fixed its match with another Spanish club, Espanyol, last season.
Espanyol vice president Rafael Entrena told the club’s official website last month that his side was not involved in any of the allegations. “We want to be absolutely clear that RCD Espanyol de Barcelona had no participation in any match-fixing, nor in any irregularity,” he said.
“We defend the purity and the sporting nature of the competition, now and always, and if the investigation shows that someone committed any irregularity they will have to face the consequences.”
