Ex-ATK Player Borja Fernandez, Former Real Madrid Star Raul Bravo Arrested For Match Fixing Charge In Spain
Spanish authorities have arrested former ATK player Borja Fernandez and Real Madrid star Raulo Bravo, along with several Spanish footballers, allegedly for being a part of a gang that fixed matches in La Liga and Liga 123. The players from the top two divisions of Spanish footballers were arrested as a part of an anti match-fixing operation.
Borja, who played for the Indian Super League franchise ATK during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 edition, had also appeared for the La Liga club Real Valladoid. Raulo, who played as a left back, had appeared for Real Madrid in six seasons from 2001 to 2007. He also represented the Spanish national team in Euro 2004.
According to the Spanish media, along with Borja, other arrested players are former Real Madrid duo Raul Bravo and Carlos Aranda, Getafe’s Samuel Saiz Alonso and Deportivo la Coruna’s Inigo Lopez Montana. Other than the players, some club officials have also been detained by the police. Agustin Lasoasa, the president of SD Huesca has been arrested, along with his club’s chief of medical services, Juan Carlos Galindo.
According to BBC, La Liga has reported a further eight possible match-fixing cases to police. “During the 2018/19 season La Liga has filed eight complaints with the general commissioner of the judicial police for alleged acts related to match-fixing in lower divisions of Spanish football and low-profile friendlies played between foreign clubs in Spain,” said an official La Liga statement.
According to the statement, the La Liga authorities had sent alert to the general directorate of gaming on 18 football matches for possible identification and sanction of players from lower divisions who could have bet on their competition. In the end, the statement thanked the Police for this anti-fixing operation and expressed their seriousness about conserving the integrity of the game. “This police operation demonstrates the effectiveness of integrity protection systems implemented by La Liga to protect the cleanliness of all competitions in Spanish football.”