Police in Spain have arrested the coach of Eldense amid allegations of match-fixing after his side’s 12-0 defeat to Barcelona B over the weekend.
Filippo Vito di Pierro was detained in Elda and his documents seized, as per ESPN FC, as authorities opted to bring him in for questioning following a complaint from the club’s president and comments publicly made by one of the player’s, Cheikh Saad.
The 12-0 loss matched a Spanish third division record for the biggest loss, but Saad made his feelings clear on the matter soon after as he grew suspicious as the game went on.
In fact, he claims that he refused to come on as a substitute as he knew something was wrong, and told some of his teammates to not play either as he wanted those involved to come off the pitch at the end in shame.
Further, he’s argued that those seen crying after the full-time whistle were those involved, making it a pretty damning account of events as he added that he received threats not to reveal the names of those involved.
Having passed on those names to the police, including coach Fran Ruiz Casares, he will now wait to see what action they take with Eldense ceasing first-team activity since and will wait for the investigation to be completed. It appears to be pretty deep-rooted in that the club have also terminated their relationship with an Italian investor group, with Saad adding that audio recordings were also now in the possession of police.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has been asked to investigate the allegations too, and while Barca may well have been delighted with their win at the time, as shown in the tweet below, it appears as though there were things happening in the background to sour the scoreline.
???? One day ago… (12-0)
Ahir va ser un dia històric! (12-0)
¡Ayer fue un día histórico! (12-0)Força Barça! ??#FCBMasia #2bg3 pic.twitter.com/bom3hUL7Qw
— FC Barcelona – Masia (@FCBmasia) April 2, 2017