Filippo di Pierro, the coach of Spanish third
division club, Eldense, has been arrested by
police and taken in for questioning after his
side lost 12-0 to Barcelona B last weekend.
Pierro’s club was smashed to smithereens
by a Barcelona B side that had players
like Alex Carbonell, Gerard Gumbau, Alberto
Perea, Kaptoum, Marc Cardona and Nacho
Abeledo but Eldense president David Aguilar
after the match denounced the result and
asked for help from the Spanish police and
La Liga- which ultimately led to Pierro’s
arrest. 
Pierro’s arrival at the club coincided with
when an Italian investment group that has
been accused of corruption took over the
club, and it is believed the coach and the
Italian investment group were involved in
match fixing, hence his arrest on Monday
night.
According to reports, bets were reportedly
placed on being 8-0 down at half-time and
to lose by 11+ goals. They were 8-0 down
at HT and lost 12-0.
Following the shameful loss, Eldense
announced they had ended ties with the
group of Italian investors and would not be
playing their six remaining fixtures of the
season.
Meanwhile, Eldense player Cheikh Saad
spoke to Spanish radio station RAC1, and
confirmed that the game had been fixed.
Saad, who did not play in the 12-0 defeat,
said: “There are four players involved in
match fixing. I don’t care what happens, but
when I can, I will give the names of these
players. Half an hour before playing the
game against Barcelona B I was starting,
but then I was out of the line up. They told
a teammate this game was fixed and if he
wanted to play he should not score goals.
They didn’t ask me as they knew what my
answer would be. The coach knew
something, I’m sure, and the players too.”
“The coach told me to come on and I told
him I did not want to. I also told my
teammates on the bench that they shouldn’t
go out on to the pitch if they didn’t want
their names to be stained.”
On Barcelona B, Saad added: “They are not
involved in any way. They did what they had
to do, score goals. If it had been me I would
have done the same.”
La Liga president Javier Tebas said: “We’re
going to investigate because there are
certain collateral issues with an Italian
investment group that bear the hallmarks of
the possible involvement of an international
betting ring with a view to match-fixing.”
It’s a crime for footballers, football
administrators, coaches or football
employees to engage in football betting.
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