What the MARCA match fixing claims mean for a Real Madrid fan
Last Friday, MARCA published an article incriminating the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in yet another scandal. In this article, I will give context to the claim and try analyze them from a Real Madrid perspective.
Angel Maria Villar has been president of the RFEF for over 30 years. Despite success on the pitch for both Spanish clubs and the national team, Villar’s tenure has been rocky, especially in the last 10 years.
Scandals
This weekend, the dispute about Barcelona-Las Palmas being played on the day of the Catalan referendum is just one of many examples of poor fixture management by the RFEF. When a Deportivo fan was killed by Atletico Ultras, chaos ensued as the two clubs attempted to postpone the game.
The game went ahead and while both clubs and the league didn’t condone the violence, Villar remained silent. This was the first in a long line of criticism the Villar regime has drawn.
The Federation has also been criticized for not bringing TV deals similar to the Premier League. The current deals in Spain allow for the top two clubs to get the majority of the money while other clubs suffered. A recent report on LaLiga club’s finances shows that Atletico Madrid made less than half of what the second biggest budget, Real Madrid, made last season.
La Liga has officially published wage bills of clubs in top two divisions. 3rd top (Atleti) not even half of 2nd. Scandalous disparity. pic.twitter.com/OYcKlaN3C1
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) September 19, 2017
Scandal after scandal did lead to Real Madrid voting against Villar in the election, but it made little difference. Villar not only won the Federation election but also took over from Micheal Platini as interim UEFA president.
The bubble did finally burst this summer when Villar was arrested along with his son and three federation executives over corruption charges. He has since been given a 1-year ban from all positions of power in the RFEF and UEFA.
The MARCA Scandal
This leads us to the latest scandal which Marca published last Friday. The article contains messages and recordings implicating both Villar and his right-hand man, Juan Pardon, in possible match-fixing and threatening officials during the last election.
It’s important to understand that these match-fixing claims are merely assumptions from what Pardon said and not concrete. Pardon admitted to controlling referees and “removing” the ones that disagreed with him. Until there is a detailed investigation, we can’t know what exactly Pardon’s agenda was for referees.
Should worst come to worst, and Pardon has indeed been fixing matches, then it is hard to see how Real will escape the fallout.
Great work from @Vidal_Vinaras - 1,999 penalties in 21st century #LaLiga. Real Madrid awarded the most (144), Barcelona the biggest net (70) pic.twitter.com/Ntm16ymDx4
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) September 21, 2017
There is no doubt that any confirmed match-fixing will put the league champions under the most scrutiny. During Villar tenure, Real Madrid and their arch rival Barcelona have won 25 league titles between them, Barcelona winning the most with 14. It would be miraculous that either of these sides could have won so many league titles with an agenda against them.
Conclusions
It is hard to take too much from this scandal right now as they are so fresh. For now, any match-fixing claims are reading between the lines and even assuming that its the league champions that were assisted by such a scheme isn’t set in stone.
It was only a few years ago that the Federation allowed Recreativo Huelva to play in the top flight despite heavy debts. The Calciopoli scandal in Italy benefited not just the league champions, but, also 4 other teams. All we can do is stay alert and hope that these allegations aren’t as serious as they seem.
Next: Real Madrid vs Espanyol: Match review