28th May, 2019
Spanish police have arrested players and officials of La Liga demoted club, Huesca and other first- and second-division football clubs over suspicions of forming a match-fixing group to profit from betting on games.
The Madrid-based Spanish newspaper El Pais reported this on Tuesday.
A lawyer for the club Huesca confirmed that various people there had been detained on a warrant.
It was issued by a local court in the north-eastern town. He did not directly name those detained.
But El Pais reported that they included club president Agustin Lasaosa as well as the head of the club’s medical department.
“We haven’t been able to speak to the president yet. However he will be able to give opportune explanations in due course,” the lawyer, Pedro Camarero, told reporters at Huesca’s stadium.
“Internally within the club we are not worried and are at the disposal of whatever the courts request of us. For now, we do not know how things will develop,” he said.
The report said that the investigation into match-fixing began after Huesca’s 1-0 defeat to Nastic at the end of their 2017/2018 season in the Segunda or second division.
By the time of that game, Huesca had already guaranteed their promotion to La Liga for the first time.
Irregular betting patterns over the half-time and full-time scores were spotted, El Pais said.
Huesca recently finished second-last in La Liga and will be back in Segunda next season.
A spokeswoman for the Spanish police confirmed there was an open investigation but would not give details.
El Pais said that police raids were taking place across the country on Tuesday.
It added that several current and former players and officials from clubs in the top two divisions had been arrested.