Espanyol are to sue radio station COPE for €3m damages over the alleged fixing of a match against Sporting Gijon last season.
According to Sport, this follows a statement by journalist Juan Antonio Alcala in a Barcelona court on Thursday when a judge was attempting to find out the alleged source inside the Spanish Football League who told the station the encounter at Cornella El-Prat had been fixed.
In his evidence Alcala denied the existence of a tape recording where the source is understood to have revealed the game was rigged, something that contradicts the radio station’s version of events after it claimed the tape did indeed exist.
“The contradiction to the judge is more than clear and I do not care who is lying, but we want explanations,” declared Espanyol spokesperson Rafael Entrena.
“We do not want to reach any agreement, because what happened is very serious, and from now on we would like to create a precedent that certain things cannot be said on air that can damage the image of a club.”
The radio station refused to comment while Entrena stated that Alcala 'had benefitted from his constitutional right not to reveal his source'.
