Getafe Dubai Club Scam

Last year reports filtered in that Getafe had been bought by an investment firm from Dubai called the Royal Emirates Group. A fund would be set aside, the new owners would be presented and that President Angel Torres would continue on the board in some capacity. The club waited, the money never came, and phone-calls from the Royal Emirates Group were never returned. Angel Torres had no idea what had happened to new ownership group and continued looking for new investment.

Some time after, in the weeks before former Espanyol President Dani Sanchez-Llibre, stepped down there were rumors that the club had been investigating the possibility of taking on foreign investment. There were other options but the primary one, because of what has happened at PSG, Manchester City and Malaga, was an offer from Arab investors. Nothing came of it, the club were typically non-committal, but the story never went anywhere. That is until this past week.

Apparently both Getafe and Espanyol were victims, to a different degree certainly, of an organized scam by 6 Spanish nationals, along with a Dominican and a Brazilian waiter posing as an Arab sheikh. It's one of the oldest scams in the book. We've all encountered it. Ever heard of the Nigerian scam? The one where you're promised untold millions if you could just float the criminals some seed money and a share of the profits? Getafe bought it. Espanyol would have if someone hadn't tipped them on to it. Officials from Spanish third division side FC Palafrugell in Catalunya were not so diligent. The investigation is ongoing and Barcelona authorities are still determining the extent of the criminal operation and to what extent other clubs or businesses have been involved but it begs the question why there isn't more scrutiny by clubs.

Angel Torres wasn't even aware of the terms of the Getafe Dubai Club deal. He knew it wasn't a great deal of money but he trusted that the investment would come in. The checks he was given had no funds. It's a story that's played out over and over again with clubs in Spain: Racing Santander, Real Zaragoza, Rayo Vallecano, Real Betis and many more. Fans are not involved enough and through oversight, stupidity or sometimes through nefarious means a club's assets are squandered away into the deep pockets of small minded ownership.