Judge absolves 36 players involved in Levante-Zaragoza match-fixing case but sentences two directors Levante-Zaragoza For falsification of documents

The judge of the match fixing case regarding a clash between Levante and Real Zaragoza has acquitted the 36 footballers, instead sentencing two Real Zaragoza directors, Agapito Iglesias and Javier Porquera to one year and three months in prison for false documentation.

Giving his judgement, the judge explained that the evidence provided by the prosecutor, who requested a two-year prison sentence and six-year ban for all players, was insufficient.

After almost a decade of the case, it brings an end to one of the most controversial matters in Spanish football.

The story behind the case

The penalty that the Attorney General's office asked for was the same for everyone, because it considered the crime to be the same for those who instigated the fixing as those who took payment for it.

That result saved Zaragoza from relegation, in theory in exchange for 965,000 euros that came from the coffers of the club.

Up to nine players, Toni Doblas, Maurizio Lanzaro, Ander Herrera, Paulo Da Silva, Braulio, Leonardo Ponzio, Jorge Lopez and Carlos Diogo, as well as the Mexican coach Javier Aguirre and the sporting director Antonio Prieto, received money in their current accounts that they later withdrew and returned to their president, Agapito Iglesias, in cash according to what the prosecution has always maintained.

This money has never been tracked, but for the investigators it was striking that the players of that Levante squad enjoyed, for the most part, a suspiciously cheap holiday that summer.

They asked the Treasury for the report of the expenses they had in their accounts the previous season and the differences are almost always miniscule.

While in 2011 - allegedly with the money for the fixed result - there were very few expenses, the previous year the expenses were of more than 200,000 in up to three cases - Gustavo Munua, Felipe Caicedo and Jefferson Montero.

From over 200,000 euros in expenses, the next year their expenses fell to just 300, 3,290 and 7,000 euros, respectively.

History of the case: Nine years for a sentence

You have to go back to 2013 to find the original complaint in this case when Javier Tebas, then vice-president of LaLiga, took evidence to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, who took him seriously.

Specifically, it was Alejandro Luzon, now the Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and he made all the players involved parade through his office to take their statements.

It was immediately high profile, with Gabi, the Atletico Madrid captain who had just lifted the LaLiga Santander title, giving a statement regarding match fixing.

The declarations were finished and the matter arrived at the City of Justice of Valencia, for its phase of instruction.

It was there that Judge Isabel Rodriguez, who at no time seemed comfortable with the case, got lucky as players who had not been summoned were asked why they did not have interest in the match.

Rodriguez dictated the dismissal of the case, to the great surprise of all involved, who saw how a historical case, the one that had gone the furthest in a theme of rigging the history of Spanish sport, was going with more sorrow than glory.

The prosecutor of the case, Pablo Ponce, fought against this dismissal of the case and appealed to the Provincial Court of Valencia which agreed and brought all of those investigated to trial.

From then on, history repeated itself for the third time: statements from everyone with outlandish testimonies including from now Leganes coach Aguirre, who was asked if he could read and write and he assured that he signed blank documents and received money envelopes that he never opened or counted.

There were also witnesses who, on this occasion, did remember more than during the investigation phase.

This sentence closes a process of almost a decade talking about match fixing in Spanish football and leaves a reality: fewer and fewer matches are rigged, but the focus must now be on gambling.