Madrid: Matchfixing is a reality in Spanish soccer and it must be the priority of the professional league (LFP) to stamp it out, the LFP's new president was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Javier Tebas, who was elected to the LFP's top job last week, told Marca sports daily Spain needed to abandon a culture of "anything goes" that meant some clubs under pressure to avoid relegation were buying games.
"If matches can be fixed that shows that the competition is not in the proper shape," the paper quoted Tebas as saying.
"We have to take a step further in denouncing something that is happening, in isolation, but it is taking place," he added, without naming specific cases of wrongdoing.
"When someone is operating at the limit there is a culture of anything goes in the league," he said.
"This must be ended and the clubs are in agreement with me. I am not going to put a pistol to anyone's head to make them speak up but I would be grateful if they could come forward."
The issue of matchfixing was catapulted into the headlines in February when investigators said they had uncovered evidence that hundreds of soccer matches at club and national level had been fixed around the globe in a betting scam run from Singapore.
There is no indication that Tebas was referring to Spanish matches being fixed by betting syndicates, rather that some clubs were being paid to throw matches towards the end of the season to help rivals avoid relegation.
"Any rumour or telephone call in which I am told that this might be happening will be reported to the relevant authorities," Tebas told Marca.
"They will be passed on to the police and the anti-corruption authority," he added.
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