Football Leaks: Players’ Comments Cost Team 4-1 Defeat

Sheikh Saada forward who was part of that Eldense squad in 2017, opened the case of thunder by denouncing alleged irregularities within the Deportivo locker room after that win at the Mini Estadi. A complaint that led the Eldense manager to ask the Professional Football League and the Police to They will investigate possible rigging of their own footballers.

The police operation resulted in the arrest of the representative of the investment fund, the coaches Fran Ruiz and Filipo di Pierroand the players Nico Cháfer and Maiki Fernández, who were later released on charges by the head of the Investigative Court Number 1 of Elda.

This Monday and throughout the week the judicial process will be held in Criminal Court Number 1 of Alicante, where you appear as acused to the Philippines Di pierro, Fran Ruiz, nobile Capuan, Maiki Fernandez, Nico Cháfer and his brother Jesus.

The Italian investment group, with Nobile Capuani as its visible head, He joined Eldense in January 2017in theory to save a delicate economic situation. Several players were fired without compensation and many others were brought in. Presumably, many of the additions served to fix matches. These were players of various nationalities, many of them without the appropriate level to develop in Second B, the category in which the Alicante club was then active.

According to the summary, in exchange for fixing the results of the matches when they knew of the interest of an investor, the ‘wet’ players could share around 30,000 euros. According to the summary, they are five matches suspects: Eldense-Ebro (1-29-2017, 2-2), Villarreal B-Eldense (2-18-2017, 4-0), Cornellá-Eldense (3-19-2017, 3-1), Eldense-Gavá (3-26-2017, 0-1) and Barcelona B-Eldense (1-4-2017, 12-0).

ABC has had access to a recording made by the player, then of Eldense, Guillermo Smitherello (who did not play in the match) at the end of the match between Cornellá and Eldense (which had allegedly been arranged so that Cornellá won 3-0 at half-time and 4-1 at the end) in which it is clear that the footballers knew what was happening. However, the match ended 3-1 because too many players were unaware of the scam and betting houses prevented betting during the second part before the evidence that something strange was happening. The player appears in the conversation Nico Cháferone of those who allegedly fixed the match with his rivals, in exchange for 40,000 euros to be distributed.

“The one you know called me and told me that they have blown the 4-1 quota,” says one. «They will know, What you cannot do is try to fix it without counting on the people who have to do it.», responds another. “I lost money,” laments a third. “I bet at half-time, at half-time was when we bet, when we grouped together and found out everything,” they say. And one of them blurts out: “Apparently three players have left the mouthand apparently there were bets in Qatar and Asia at 4-2. Sportium had blocked the odds here and those who were going to do the fixing have not been able to bet. “Because of those players it has gone to waste, there was the guy who was going to do the fixing here on the field.”

At a certain moment, the Cornellá players try to reassure the Eldense players: «You don’t have to worry about anything because it hasn’t come out, the problem is if it comes out…”, points out one, who gets the following response: “And if it had come out I’d be sweating in the balls, because prove it. The only thing that has happened is that people have lost money. The recording is already part of the summary, it appears in the documentation presented by the prosecution.

The lawyers of the investor Nobile Capuani and the coach Filippo Vito Di Pierro are convinced of the innocence of those representedby ensuring that they did not participate at any time in the alleged irregularities, despite the fact that the accusations from Eldense, LaLiga, the Federation and the Prosecutor’s Office point directly to them and ask sentences of several years in prison for corruption in business and integration of a criminal group.

«Capuani finds out that three players, Guille, Nico and Carbonellthey wanted to fix the match against Cornellá, called Filippo and in the technical talk he left them out of the lineup. In my opinion, Capuani prevents the rigging with Filippo,” he explains to ABC. José Miguel Esquembrelawyer for the Italian coach.

«The vast majority of situations that occurred come from general discontent with the Italian investment fund. An attempt has been made from the first moment to make a film talking about Calabrian mafiaand they have done it because they are Italian. There are clearly xenophobic overtones: there is no connection with the Italian mafia, except that they have Italian nationality… But in the summary there is not a single piece of evidence that incriminates the Italians in betting or rigging, or in any other illicit action. It’s nonsense. The players are the only ones who have recognized that they bet,” he points out to this newspaper. Antonio Geaa lawyer who defends Nobile Capuani, who concludes: “The discontent was such because of the sporting results and the Italians did everything in their power to stop any hint of betting or fixing.”