The President of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP), Javier Tebas, has said that the LFP will be investigating comments allegedly made by Deportivo de La Coruña defender Alberto Lopo prior to the recent La Liga match between Barcelona and Deportivo, as well as the final match of Spain’s Second Division between Real Betis and Sporting Gijón. The Spanish newspaper AS claims that the LFP will not however be investigating the match itself between Barcelona and Deportivo, which was played on 23^rd May 2015, and which local media had speculated had come under scrutiny.

According to AS, Lopo is reported to have told Barcelona captain Xavi Hernández to ‘let up a bit, that the draw was a good result for everybody’. Barcelona were leading 2-0 at half-time but the match eventually ended in a 2-2 draw, which meant that Deportivo did not get relegated from La Liga, Spain’s top professional football league. The draw did not affect Barcelona, who were set to win the league regardless of the result of that match. Xavi allegedly told Lopo in response to his aforementioned comments that he ‘wasn’t going to throw the match’, but Lopo claims that Barcelona’s ‘level was not at the same level it normally was and that worked in our favour’.

On Friday, Deportivo Chairman, Tino Fernández, reportedly said that the words of Lopo and Xavi should be attributed to ‘a time of nerves and tension’ as Deportivo had just tied the game which had guaranteed their survival in the top flight. Despite reportedly saying that he was ‘upset’ that the LFP had opened an investigation he thought that the action was ‘good for football and for the competition’.

Despite Tebas’ affirmation that the Barcelona – Deportivo match would not come under scrutiny, he told media that the Second Division match between Real Betis and Sporting Gijón was being ‘studied’ although it had not been deemed ‘suspicious’. The Guardian reported that Tebas told AS that there was ‘no concrete evidence’ of any wrongdoing, nor any irregularities in betting offices, but that there had been ‘rumours’ surrounding the match which warranted investigating. Sporting Gijón’s 3-0 win over Real Betis in that match secured both teams automatic promotion into La Liga.

The Guardian also reported that in a separate interview with the radio station Cope’s programme ‘El partido de las 12’, Tebas reiterated that there were no clear signs of malpractice. He did however concede that there had been complaints about ‘primas’ on social media, alluding to the bonuses that player receive to win a match.