Leo La Valle AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.
Five weeks ago, El País published an unusual investigative report about a suspected fixed match that, one year earlier, interrupted our otherwise pleasant lives in Barcelona, Spain. It is largely thanks to the courage of six children, who agreed to recorded interviews with El País as part of its one-year investigation, that anyone knows the story of this controversial match.
As described in the article, on 30 May 2015, two teams – UE Cornellà and Gimnàstic Manresa – faced each other in the final match of the season in an elite youth category of Catalan football. This is a category in which, every week, the coaches prepare their players for the match with a “do or die” mentality, instructing them to “dejarse la piel” (literally “leave one’s skin behind”) on the field.
