The alleged criminal organization, with its epicenter in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, consisted of players who took advantage of their condition to agree on results in teams under their influence
At least ten footballers have been arrested in the provinces of Badajoz, Sevilla, Almería and Cádiz for match fixing in the RFEF Second and Third Division and in the Gibraltar league. The action of the National Police, which counts on the support of Europol and Interpol, finds its epicenter in the town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Cadiz. The detainees have been charged with alleged crimes of membership in a criminal organization, corruption between individuals on the sports field and fraud against game operators.
It is believed that the criminal organization had been active since at least May 2021, when they were discovered by the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling for the erratic behavior of the gambling market on the occasion of an RFEF Third Division match. The investigation has been opened under summary secrecy, so more arrests involved in the scandal affecting the Spanish football categories in Andalusia and Extremadura are not ruled out.
The organization “was divided into several tiers and consisted of football players who took advantage of their condition to organize sports fixes into teams under their influence,” police said. After the sporting event was pre-determined, the organization placed bets on fixed matches that “turned big wins”.
Among the players arrested are two footballers from Atlético Sanluqueño, although the Cadiz club that has played in the First RFEF this season and has been relegated to the Second RFEF is out of the plot. “The club has never been investigated, unaware of all these facts and in the most absolute ignorance. If the same is confirmed, and always subject to the presumption of innocence, Atlético Sanluqueño will take the appropriate measures it deems necessary against the players or anyone involved with links to the club,” the club said in a statement.
In professional and semi-professional football, 99% of the 7,809 games analyzed by LaLiga last season are free of fixes, the association of clubs chaired by Javier Tebas announced on Tuesday. In the First and Second Divisions, no possible match-fixing event was found in the 369 games in LaLiga Santander or in the 432 in LaLiga Smartbank.
The number of complaints has been reduced to just 13 in the 2021-2022 campaign, according to LaLiga, none of them in professional football and a third of those five years ago.
Source: La Verdad
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