FORMER Valencia president Paco Roig has claimed he bribed a referee ahead of a Uefa Cup game – only for the plan to backfire.
Roig was the majority shareholder and president of the La Liga club from 1994 to 1997.
The Spanish businessman’s tenure with Valencia was marked by controversy and scandal.
Sports corruption in Spain was not classified as a crime until 2010.
Roig has opened up on his three-year reign in a tell-all interview with outlet Relevo.
When asked about the purchase of matches in the mid-1990s, he admitted: “There was that everywhere.”
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Roig claims he was approached by an agent as Valencia prepared to take on Bayern Munich in the 1996-97 UEFA Cup.
Bayern were the defending champions, with the Spanish side drawing them in the first round.
He explained: “This [agent] comes and says to me, ‘Paco, the referee you got is a son of a b*tch…
“But I’m close friends with him, and it’s fixed, you have to give me three million [pesetas]. (about £70,000 now)
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“I told him, well, OK, I’ll give [you the money] at the end. And he said no, that it had to be before.”
Roig alleges he gave the agent the cash before the contest, which was held on September 10, 1996, at the Mestalla.
He continued: “I gave him the three million.
“The referee came out and five minutes later they called a penalty against Valencia.”
Jurgen Klinsmann would miss the penalty for Bayern, as Valencia eventually ran out 3-0 winners.
But Roig added: “With that buying thing, it’s a real mess.”
The Spanish side saw off Slavia Prague and Besiktas in the next round.
However, their European adventure was cut short by Schalke in the quarter-finals.
Current La Liga president Javier Tebas attended a fans forum in Madrid on Monday.
He opened up on match-fixing and declared the issue a thing of the past in Spain.
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Tebas said: “I think there is no more match-fixing. We work hard to monitor betting.
“There is none in our categories. Sometimes we detect it in other sports and we report it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
