La Liga: Five Spanish players charged in possible match-fixing scandal

Updated on: 14 March,2015 08:58 AM IST |
AFP |

Five Spanish footballers were charged with match-fixing on Friday. A judge in the northern province of Navarre indicted the five, who were named as Jorge Molina and Jordi Figueras of Betis Seville, Sergio Garcia, the captain of Espanyol, Patxi PuÃ±al, formerly of Osasuna, and Antonio Amaya, a former Betis player who now plays for Rayo Vallecano

Madrid: Five Spanish footballers were charged with match-fixing on Friday. A judge in the northern province of Navarre indicted the five, who were named as Jorge Molina and Jordi Figueras of Betis Seville, Sergio Garcia, the captain of Espanyol, Patxi PuÃ±al, formerly of Osasuna, and Antonio Amaya, a former Betis player who now plays for Rayo Vallecano.

"They've all been charged over possible match-fixing," a court spokesman confirmed to AFP. Earlier this month, the same judge had already remanded former Osasuna president Miguel Archanco in custody with bail set at 500,000 euros ($548,000) on charges of match-fixing and misappropriation of funds.

Another former member of the Osasuna board, Jesus Maria Peralta, was also remanded in custody. Both men were arrested along with another ex-director of the Spanish second division club, Angel Vizcay, after both Osasuna and the Spanish Football League presented findings that missing money from the club's accounts could have been used to fix matches towards the end of last season. Last month the current Osasuna board announced that just over 2.4 million euros from the club's accounts could not be accounted for.

Press reports indicated that the matches in question date back to the end of the 2013-14 season as Osasuna were fighting to avoid relegation to the second division.