River Plate captain faces trial in Spain

Leonardo Ponzio, captain of River Plate, faces a complicated legal situation in Spain, where he must respond to the justice system for a controversial football episode.

The trial for the alleged match-fixing of a 2011 LaLiga match between Levante and Zaragoza has begun on Tuesday in Valencia, with the presence of the 42 defendants and with the defense's request for annulment of the proceedings, which have been rejected by both the prosecution and the accusation.

Both teams played a match in May of that year during the Spanish tournament, which ended with a 1-2 victory for the Aragonese team at the Ciutat de València stadium, where the Valencia team had nothing at stake and the away victory ensured their stay in the top category of Spanish football.

At the end of the first day of the trial, the judge has called the parties involved for this Wednesday to resolve or postpone the resolution of the preliminary issues raised.

Among them, the defense requests a block annulment, understanding that the case is based on a complaint by lawyer Javier Tebas, currently president of LaLiga, which was based on information provided by a player from the Zaragoza club, who they have not wanted to identify so far in the process.

Judicial sources have confirmed to Efe that the prosecution is requesting two years in prison and six years of disqualification for the involved football players, and that LaLiga, as a private prosecutor along with Deportivo de La Coruña, the club that was relegated to the Second Division that year, could raise this request to four years.

The day started just before nine in the morning with the accused's arrival at the Valencia City of Justice, who made no statements upon arrival.

The accused players and former players from that Zaragoza squad are Maurizio Lanzaro, Toni Doblas, Paulo da Silva, Jorge López, Ander Herrera, Braulio Nóbrega, Leo Ponzio, Gabi Fernández, Carlos Diogo, Ivan Obradovic, Ikechukwu Uche, Adam Pinter, Javier Paredes, Leo Franco, Jiri Jarosik, Nicolás Bertolo, Said Boutahar, and Ángel Lafita.

Among those who were part of Levante are Miguel Pallardó, Gustavo Munúa, Héctor Rodas, Rafael Jordá, Rubén Suárez, Xavi Torres, Cristhian Stuani, Wellington da Silva, Jefferson Montero, Miguel Robusté, Javi Venta, Manuel Reina, Felipe Caicedo, Vicente Iborra, Xisco Muñoz, Sergio Ballesteros, Juanfran García, and David Cerrajería.

The Zaragoza team, as a legal entity, its former president Agapito Iglesias, two former executives of the club, Francisco Checa and Javier Porquera; its former coach, Mexican Javier Aguirre; and its former sports director Antonio Prieto, are also accused.

In the first session of the trial, the lawyers of the defendants requested that their clients be exempt from attending trial sessions in which they do not have to testify so that they can fulfill their professional commitments, in the case of active football players, attending training and games.

The defense of several defendants requested the annulment of the proceedings, arguing that it is based on a complaint made by Tebas after obtaining information from a client as a lawyer. They also consider Tebas' action to be "extremely serious", both for the breach of confidentiality and for a possible violation of the right to privacy.

The prosecutors and the accusations have rejected the annulment and have defended Tebas' complaint, stating that the right to privacy has not been violated, "as no personal data of anyone in the dock has been revealed," and they consider that there is a case of sports fraud that has not expired.

Source: EFE