The football world in Spain is dealing with quite a mess. Several players and club executives have been arrested for allegedly participating in match-fixing, reports the BBC.
All involved appear to have been in La Liga, and the arrested suspects include current and former players from the country’s top two divisions. “The police action follows complaints about possible match-fixing in a May 2018 match from La Liga to the Spanish authorities,” said a spokesperson from La Liga.
There are no details yet as to who was arrested, but considering the alleged corruption happened in the league’s top two divisions, there’s bound to be some well-known names in there.
La Liga also reported eight cases of possible match fixing to the police, all in the lower divisions. That possibly means many more arrestsd are on the way. The spokesperson added:
“We have also sent alerts to the general directorate of gaming on 18 football matches for possible identification and sanction of players from lower divisions who could have bet on their competition.”
In their released statement, La Liga thanked the police for assisting them in cracking down on the alleged match-fixing incidents, and noted their continuing effort to clean up the sport. Considering the potential for 18 fixed matches from the 2018/19 season alone, it looks like they have a lot more work to do.
Thankfully for the league, they haven’t had any other match-fixing scandals in recent years, so the stain of corruption isn’t as bad as it could be. For the last reported case of it, you’d have to go back to the 2010/11 season, when 41 were named in an investigation of a potentially rigged match.
Although 41 suspects are a lot, the potential for as many as 18 matches now having been rigged appears to be an even worse case. The football and gambling world will wait anxiously to see who exactly was caught in this operation, and how deep the rabbit hole goes.
