Spain: Un-Real Decisions, Match Fixing And A History Of State Aid.
Take Spain. Everyone in world football sees that Real Madrid get decisions in Spain (James discussed Europe, but it’s even more blatant at home) that simply would not happen to any other club. When Jose Mourinho was in charge and he tried his “everybody is against us” routine even Real fans laughed at him.
On top of that, it’s an established fact that Real Madrid got “state aid” when they sold their training ground to the City of Madrid for a grossly inflated sum of money.
Madrid are, without dispute, Spain’s “establishment club”, but they weren’t even alone in the “state aid” scandal. Four other clubs, including Barcelona, had to pay millions back to the taxpayer, and in fines.
Spain is being rocked right now by a match-fixing scandal … it involves lower league (tier three) club Eldense, who have already sacked a dozen of their players because of it. Their corruption came to light this season, when Barcelona’s youth side annihilated them 12-0 … it was 8-0 at half time. The chairman had harboured suspicions before that match, but after it he took action, reporting the matter to governing bodies and the police.
It’s not the first time this has happened in Spain; the country has been periodically rocked by these allegations, going back years. A game in 2011 was the subject of a police inquiry after Real Zaragoza players were alleged to have bribed Levante players to lose an end of season game which kept them in La Liga. A number of high profile footballers, included ex Hearts midfielder Miguel Pallardo, were caught up in that one. A more recent claim involved an investigation into Real Vallecona players and their betting habits, prior to a 2-1 defeat to Real Sociedad in May last year.
Then there are the tax cases involving a number of high profile players, talk that a massive doping scandal lies buried amongst blood collected already but never proper analysed … and it goes on and on and on.
It’s not “accepted” but it is known.
But it “can’t happen here”?