At the end of the game, Real Zaragoza's players stood before their fans and celebrated. It was May 2011 and around 7,000 of them had travelled to Valencia to see their team escape relegation with a final day victory against Levante. They had been in the relegation zone at the halfway stage of the season, but nine wins in the second half of the season, including that 2-1 win, saw them survive. It had been some turnaround, and it had been tense until the final day. Anything less than a victory would have been a disaster.
Almost a thousand kilometres away, there were very different scenes. Deportivo de La Coruna's players and fans were in tears. Zaragoza survived; Deportivo did not. They were relegated to the Second Division on 43 points. Deportivo had not played well all season -- in fact, they had mostly been terrible -- but no team had ever gone down with so many points. The coach Miguel-Angel Lotina complained that there had been something "odd" about results in the final weeks of the season.
Now, three years later, that Zaragoza game
is being revisited. The question is whether the match was fixed.
The investigation began when the president of the Spanish league, Javier Tebas, made a formal denouncement to the police in January, handing over the evidence that had been gathered. Quoting sources close to the investigation, reports in the Spanish media say that there is "a lot of evidence." El País reported that 120,000 euros was paid into a number of Zaragoza players' accounts and then withdrawn a few days later. The accusation is that it was withdrawn to pay Levante players to lose the game.
Thirty-three people have been called before judge Alejandro Luzon, the equivalent of a state attorney or public prosecutor. The identities of all them have not yet been revealed but according to El País there are players among them, including Xavi Torres, Juanfran, Sergio Ballesteros and the current Atletico captain, Gabi, who scored twice that day, including a wonderful free kick. Then-Zaragoza manager Javier Aguirre has been told to attend too, as has the club's then-owner Agapito Iglesias.
They have been called to give their accounts; no one has been charged yet. And of course, all parties must be presumed innocent until proven guilty. If the public prosecutor considers that there is a case to be answered, he would then instruct a judge in Valencia to bring the case to court. Match-fixing carries a penalty of between six months and four years in jail -- and one to six years barred from the sport.
Now there are reports of other games that are also being investigated. The list looks set to grow; it is as if someone has opened a box and every time you look in, there is a another game that arouses suspicions.
