When a football match goes into crazy scoring that a team is defeated 12-0, something is amissed somewhere. For Filippo di Pierro, the boss of Spanish third division side Eldense, he has a lot of explanations to make after his side’s 12-0 defeat by Barcelona’s B team on Saturday.
The defeat sealed Eldense’s relegation. Eldense player Cheikh Saad was the first to point the finger at a number of his teammates and coach. He said that certain players stood to make “huge sums” of money from bets placed on the match. The club’s president David Aguilar then reported his suspicions to the police and the Spanish football authorities.
In an interview with Spanish radio station, Cadena Ser, Eldense defender Emmanuel Mendy said the club’s assistant coach, Fran Ruiz, had spoken to him about a plan to fix the game.
“He asked me if I was in and how much I wanted and if I wasn’t in then I wouldn’t play,” said Mendy.
Barcelona first-team coach Luis Enrique has also commented on the situation, which he described as “very delicate”.
