FOOTBALL IN THE DOCK
Match-fixing scandal hits local club, with England-born player among detainees
PLAYERS and staff at an Alicante football club stand accused of involvement with an international match-fixing syndicate after their team lost a game 12-0 at the weekend.
Five employees of Club Deportivo Eldense were questioned by an Elda courthouse judge this week over the game, which was allegedly thrown ‘in order to obtain money from betting’.
Those arrested face charges of corruption between individuals and being members of a criminal organisation.
The suspects are Nobile Capuani, the representative of the Italian investment group which runs the club; team manager Filippo Vito di Pierro, who also hails from Italy; Spanish coach Francisco Ruiz Casares; and the players Nico Cháfer and Michael Wayne Fernández, who trained with England’s under-18 squad in 2015.
A spokeswoman for the Regional Supreme Court said the two players and the coach had taken their constitutional right not to answer any questions posed during the court appearance.
They have all been released by the judge while the court investigation continues.
The spokeswoman noted that the three Spaniards have been banned from leaving Spain by the court and the two Italians are not allowed to leave the EU.
She said Sr Capuani has been ordered to sign on at the courthouse twice a month.
The Italian investment group which he fronts in Spain took over Elda’s second division B club in January, when they appointed Filippo Vito di Pierro as manager.
During the same month the club brought in new players including promising young talent Michael Wayne Fernández, aged 20, who was born in Bradford to a British mother and Spanish father – and midfielder Nico Cháfer.
The match-fixing scandal hit the headlines shortly after Club Deportivo Eldense lost 12-0 to FC Barcelona’s second team, Barça B on Saturday.
Elda player Cheikh Saad stated that the match had been fixed by four members of his team ‘with the connivance of at least the manager’.
Following his accusation, the club board announced on Sunday that they were terminating all links with the Italian investors and temporarily suspended the sporting activities of the club.
At the same time they asked the authorities to investigate the heavy defeat.
On Tuesday, CD Eldense board president David Aguilar gave a press conference outside the club’s ground.
He stated that he ‘was not surprised’ that the Italian investment group representative had been arrested.
“This is all very sad and I hope from now on that clubs will give talks to their young players and explain the problems that this sort of behaviour can cause,” he said.
UEFA suspicions
According to El Mundo newspaper, UEFA’s match-fixing investigators had already detected problems at CD Eldense during a match on March 5, just two months after the Italians took over.
UEFA was informed of ‘unexpected and unexplainable’ bets on the game between CD Eldense and Atlético Baleares.
Elda shipped three goals in the second half. From half time, bets that the team was going to lose by more than two or three goals ‘rocketed’, with the game ending up 5-0.
According to the newspaper, UEFA alerted the Spanish authorities about the situation but the Spanish football federation took no action.
Young talent signed
On January 12, CD Eldense announced on their website that they had come to an agreement with Valencia CF to sign midfielder Michael Wayne Fernández on loan for the rest of the season.
The club noted that he had been in the best youth teams in Spain, with a spell at Real Madrid.
“His family moved to Benidorm for several years and he went with them,” noted the club on its website.
“When he was playing in the youth team there, Guillermo Amor personally took him to train at FC Barcelona and he passed the tests.
“However, his family did not want him to stay in Barcelona due to his young age and he went to the Villarreal youth team.”
Finally he was poached by Valencia, where he ‘shone’ in the youth team, which led to a call-up from Spain’s under-18 coach.
“Maiki is a player with a tremendous future and we are thrilled to have someone with his talent in our team,” the club had stated in January.