La Liga Levante President Quico Catalán "has before him one of the most tense moments in the club's history," according to Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of MARCA. The first and most important issue is "what to do with the players implicated in the controversy unleashed after the game against Deportivo." Within the club, there is a growing conviction that Catalán will be firm and will not want any of the implicated players in his new project, but this decision has not been made. Of Sergio Ballesteros, Juanfran Garcia, Gustavo Munúa, Juanlu Gómez and Jose Javier Barkero, all have contracts in effect except Munúa, "who will surely leave." Barkero and Ballesteros have renewed contracts and Gómez and Garcia have another year. The president's decision "cannot take forever because it would be a clear gesture for the club to definitively separate itself from the suspects and completely collaborate with the Spanish Football League (LFP)" (MARCA, 5/13).
GARCÍA SPEAKS OUT: The EFE reported García "harshly criticized LFP President Javier Tebas, and explained that he will not let Tebas use his team 'like a guinea pig' in the open investigation for suspected match-fixing and illegal bets." García criticized the way Tebas is managing the investigation that surged after Barkero yelled at Garcia and three other teammates in the locker room for a lack of intensity during a Levante-Deportivo game on April 13. García: "It is a lot easier to go after a small club than a bigger club. Tebas has entered one way in La Liga. His slogan was to end the fixed games. But I do not want him to choose Levante to be his guinea pig. I do not want this and I will not consent to it. What he has to do internally, I do not tell him not to do it, but at least publicly he should have a little more caution with what he says. He is doing a lot of damage. When Tebas realizes the mistake he has made with what he is doing, I expect he will ask for forgiveness" (EFE, 5/13).
