Spanish football warns of mafia-controlled risk

The Spanish Football Federation has just warned of concerns about the country's lower leagues being manipulated by mafias to fix results to serve illegal betting lines.

Some Eldense players (in yellow shirts) were said to be "both thieves and screamers" when they pretended to cry despite intentionally fixing the match, leading to a terrible 0-12 loss to Barcelona's youth team. Photo: AFP

AFP said the concern stems from a match-fixing scandal in which Barcelona's youth team crushed Eldense 12-0 in the Second Division B (Spain's third division). The investigation led to the arrest of Italian coach Filippo Di Pierro and four others after Cheikh Saad accused his teammates at Eldense. In addition to coach Di Pierro, the other four people include a member of the coaching staff, two players and the head of an Italian investment company with a large stake in Eldense.

According to Spanish media, secret investments from Italian companies in Second Division B teams are suspected of having links to the mafia with the aim of fixing matches. "This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are other cases of a larger scale that we are about to reveal, mostly in the third, fourth and semi-professional divisions because the players in these divisions earn less than 1,000 euros a month," Alfredo Lorenzo, director of the integrity committee of the Spanish championships, told AFP.

Facing the risk of being manipulated by the mafia, La Liga has signed a contract to hire a company to monitor irregular betting. Photo: AFP

“It’s not that more and more players are playing dishonestly, but because they earn so little, they have become fertile ground for illegal betting,” said Javier Edo, head of the ethics committee of the Spanish Footballers’ Association. “This lucrative business has attracted mafia groups from Southeast Asia, the Balkans, Russia and Italy who aim to manipulate the results of competitions.”

“They (the mafia) contact the players, agree on the outcome of the match-fixing and the amount of the bribe,” said Jesus Alberto Fuentes, a member of the Spanish police task force that monitors match-fixing in soccer. Fuentes said match-fixing investigations are often lengthy and costly, targeting the illegal betting market in Asia and making it difficult to trace the movement of money.

In response to these concerns, La Liga (Spain's top league) has signed a contract with online gaming company JDigital to use fraud detection technology around betting odds on matches.

According to Mr. Edo, even normal situations such as corner kicks can be manipulated by illegal betting lines. The most recent case is the goalkeeper of Acero CF Club revealed that he received a phone call offering to pay 1,000 euros for a goal conceded or another match was asked to pay for 15 corner kicks in the first half...

According to TNO