La Liga President Javier Tebas confirmed on Monday that Spanish third division side Eldense's 12-0 loss at Barcelona B "will be investigated" after Eldense's board of directors "requested a probe into the possibility that match-fixing was involved," according to Samuel Marsden of ESPN.com. Barcelona B was up 8-0 up after 45 minutes. Since then, claims have emerged that "players on the visiting team threw the game," while the board announced all sporting activity would be suspended and "ties with a group of Italian investors cut." Tebas: "We are going to look into it because the Eldense board have asked us to and the result at halftime was out of the ordinary. We're going to investigate because there are certain collateral issues with an Italian investment group that bear the hallmarks of the possible involvement of an international betting ring with a view to match-fixing" (ESPN.com, 4/3). SPORT reported Eldense's Cheikh Saad confirmed the match-fixing claims that emerged on Sunday night and said that he is "willing to give up the names of the players involved." Saad: "There are four players involved in match-fixing. I don’t care what happens, but when I can, I will give the names of these players." Saad "does not think Barcelona B players were involved," saying that "they did what they had to do, score goals." He said, "Half an hour before playing the game against Barcelona B I was starting, but before the game they made us leave the lineup. They told a teammate this game was fixed and if he wanted to play he should not score goals. They didn’t ask me. The coach knew something, I’m sure, and the players too" (SPORT, 4/3).
