Spanish league to investigate alleged match fixing in Sociedad game
ByReuters
Published 13/05/2016 at 13:08 GMT
Spain's professional soccer league will investigate allegations that last Sunday's La Liga game between Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano may have been fixed, LFP president Javier Tebas said on Friday.
Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) face à la Real Sociedad
Image credit: AFP
Newspaper El Mundo earlier reported that irregular betting patterns had been observed on the match, which finished 2-1 to Real Sociedad and left Rayo on the brink of relegation.
According to the paper, the odds on Real Sociedad winning went from 2.60 to 3.80 during the week, before dropping to 2.70 on Saturday as more bets were placed.
Speaking to radio station Cadena Ser, Tebas said the league had spent years working to clean up Spanish football and investigated "even the smallest of rumours".
"When you hear rumours you can't look the other way. If we end up archiving this case we'll be very happy," he said.
Tebas downplayed the likely significance of the reported betting patterns, however, saying: "That game, Real-Rayo, had abnormal patterns, but it doesn't mean anything.
"On Saturday money started to come in against Rayo winning, their odds went down by more than a point, and you have to monitor that, but it doesn't mean anything.
"It's an international (betting) market that focuses a lot on the league table," the LFP chief added.
At a news conference on Friday, Rayo Vallecano's entire squad plus coach Paco Jemez and club president Raul Martin Presa denied any wrongdoing.
"If we had any suspicion that someone had sold themselves we wouldn't be doing this news conference. We are all united and clean," goalkeeper David Cobeno said.
Real Sociedad and the Spanish league did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Rayo Vallecano also released a statement denouncing the accusations and denying El Mundo's report that an argument took place at halftime in the Rayo dressing room at Real Sociedad.
"We deny that there was any incident or argument between players in the dressing room at halftime," it said, noting Rayo's players would suffer salary cuts if the club was relegated to the second division.
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