BALLYBRACK FROM THE DEAD
Minute’s silence for soccer player... after club falsely claims he passed away
SOCCER clubs held a minute’s silence for a player – after being falsely told he was dead.
Ballybrack FC claimed Fernando Nuno La-fuente died in a car crash last Friday.
But he is alive and home in Spain – and the Dublin club allegedly invented the story to get a match called off.
One furious soccer fan said: “Absolute disgrace. [They] should be thrown out of whatever league they’re in and banned.”
A SOCCER club scored a spectacular own goal after claiming a star player had been killed in a car crash – to avoid playing a game.
Ballybrack FC in Dublin is being investigated by the Leinster Senior League over the “fake death” of Spaniard Fernando Nuno La-fuente.
Bosses were told his body had been flown home following the “crash” after training last Thursday, but after checking it out, it was discovered he is alive and well in Spain.
Mr La-fuente is said to have returned home about a month ago.
The league has now opened an investigation into the club’s activities after “acting in good faith” and postponing Ballybrack’s game against Arklow Town last Saturday.
A number of other clubs posted tributes on social media with Liffey Wanderers and Templeogue United organising a minute’s silence.
League chairman David Moran told the Irish Mirror last night: “As far as we know we had a phone call Friday morning to say the young lad was in an accident and died in hospital, and they wanted their match off.
“Obviously our rules are quite clear, the other team have to be informed and make arrangements. I stepped in and said ‘Look lads this is serious stuff ’.
“The game was called off. We issued a statement saying we were sorry to hear about it, offered our sympathies to the family.” But the story of Fernando’s death began to unravel as Mr Moran and the league tried to pay their respects.
He added: “On Monday I asked our lads to get in contact with Ballybrack to find out when the service was, or if people were flying here or home.
“We felt we needed to act, maybe the lad might need a bit of help, and we’d go to the service.
“We were told he was brought home on Saturday.
“Straight away that rang a bell for me, I said, ‘Hang on, you don’t die in hospital on a Friday and go back to Spain on a Saturday’.
“We started to look into it, and it all unravelled.
“Did we do wrong? We issued a statement to sympathise with the family. I don’t think we did because that was the information we were given.”
A screenshot of messages on Whatsapp began circulating suggesting the whole story was a hoax. The club removed a statement of remembrance on its Facebook page they had posted for him.
Then the Leinster Senior League announced an investigation into the affair once it became clear to Mr Moran that Mr Fuente was alive and well.
He added: “We can’t contact anybody from Ballybrack at the moment.
“All we know is the young lad is back in Spain the last four or five weeks.
“I’m delighted that the young lad is alive, and he’s going to have a happy life.
“We have contacts for him, but imagine me ringing him up. How would that conversation go? ‘Hi, this is David Moran from the Leinster Senior League, we heard you died last week’.
“It’s unfortunate for Ballybrack, it’s unfortunate for the people of Ballybrack.
“We’ll get to the end of our investigations and then from a football point of view and then we’ll take it from there at a committee level.
“Nobody has any record of anybody being killed in Ballybrack.
“That’s the sad part – or the great part whichever way you look at it.”
A bell rang for me. We started to look into it and it all unravelled DAVID MORAN LEINSTER SENIOR LEAGUE CHAIRMAN