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The Osasuna case and Antonio Amaya (24th March, 2017)

In the 2013-14 La Liga, Osasuna were relegated along with Valladolid and Real Betis. This was the season Real Betis were playing amazingly well in the Europa League but bottling it in the league.

And even though they had nothing to play for, some of their players may have had a reason to not play for anything.

Irregularities in Osasuna's accounts and the fixtures at the end of the 2013/14 season has led the Prosecutor Office to ask for more than 14 years in prison for Osasuna's former administrator, Ángel Vizcay, and more than 12 for former president Miguel Archanco and former director Txuma Peralta.

But there's more, they also have requested 11 years and 11 months of imprisonment for ex-directors Juan Pascual, José Manuel Purroy and Sancho Bandrés, and for ex-Betis players Antonio Amaya, Jordi Figueras and Xavi Torres it's 2 years in prison and a 1.9 million euro fine.

Let's look at this one by one:


  • The prosecutor wants Vizcay to release more information after a confession to the LFP in January 2015. They have asked for 14 years and 4 months in jail for misappropriation, accounting, documentary misrepresentation and sports corruption, as well as a fine of 1.9 million euros.
  • For Txuma Peralta the prosecutor wants 12 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of 1.9 million euros for crimes of misappropriation, false accounting and sports corruption, and for Miguel Archanco 12 years and 5 months and a fine of 1.9 million euros.
  • The current general manager of Osasuna, Angel Ardanaz, for whom the prosecutor wants 14 months in prison for a crime of documentary misrepresentation - interestingly, the LFP (Tebas) does not accuse Vizcay of anything and wants Archanco and his board to serve 13 years, 4 for Maquírrian and the former players of Betis, and a year for the management board.
  • The prosecutor has also sought 18 months imprisonment for estate agent Cristina Valencia, 2 years in jail and a fine of 1.9 million euros for the former director of the Osasuna Foundation Diego Maquírriain, and 23 months for the board of directors (Javier Zabaleta, Luis Ibero, Angel Larrea, Jesús Dronda and Pedro Zudaire) for documentary misrepresentation.
The Pamplona Court of Instruction accused 18 of the 29 investigated after the investigation was completed in mid-February, when it decided to file the indictment against players Patxi Puñal, Damià Abella, Sergio García and Jorge Molina, as well as current Osasuna coach Petar Vasiljević.


The magistrate also ordered the dismissal of the case with respect to former directors José Luis Roldán and Manolo Ganuza, former general director of Osasuna José Gómez, ex-trustee Tomás López, former member of the board of directors Marino Zulet and auditor Adolfo Suárez.

Oh, and very conveniently, Fermín Otamendi, head of the Court, ​​put in 2.2 million euros - the money that was unjustifiably extracted from the accounts of the Navarrese club (also, Osasuna is not an SAD for historical reasons).

And if you've scrolled all the way down, this is what really is shocking - the judge estimated that there were indications that Osasuna paid three players of Betis, Antonio Amaya, Jordi Figueras and Xavi Torres, 650,000 euros in cash. Of that, 400,000 was to win against Valladolid and 250,000 to lose to Osasuna in the last two games of the season.

Antonio Amaya's reaction? Calls it a smear campaign, and confidently says that those who accuse him will eat their own words. That's the confidence of a man who either accepts bribes and is good at lying, or refused a bribe and decided to throw both games anyways.

It's just sad that in both cases, Spanish football's reputation takes a hit.

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