As La Liga title race heads to the final showdown this weekend, Real Madrid have found themselves on the spotlight following a shocking revelation by Granada goalkeeper Ivan Kelava (inset). According to a report published on Goal Italia, the shot stopper revealed that Real Madrid could be planning to ‘bribe’ Granada players in form of bonuses in a bid to charge them up for the crunch tie against Barcelona.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are separated by a single point at the top of the league table. Barca, who sit at the top with 88 points, need nothing less than a win at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes on Saturday to be declared this season’s champions, and they face a Granada side that has nothing to lose after surviving relegation.
On the other hand, Real Madrid travel to Riazor to face Deportivo in a match they have to win whist hoping that their fierce rivals Barca will drop points in their respective fixture. Basically, the title could go either way this weekend, but no team is assured of winning it not until the final whistle.
Back to Kelava, the Croatian goalie was quoted as saying:
“Because of the celebrations [for survival] we haven’t trained well this week, but my teammates have told me that it’s a normal thing to motivate players of other clubs.
''That’s why it could be that Real Madrid offer us a bonus for stopping Barca.’’
Meanwhile, former Granada midfielder Moises Hurtado also confirmed that such incidences of bribes and other ‘incentives’ were not new in the league. He claimed that such bosses have existed all his life and added:
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Granada got a call from Madrid this week.”
The two games will be played on Saturday, and kick-off at the same time. However, the 28-year-old later tweeted to deny the bribery allegations. He also retweeted the original interview done by Goal, where no discussions about financial incentives were mentioned.
Speaking to the media yesterday, he explained:
''I arrived to training yesterday and the club president Quique Pine called me sounding very worried. I had no idea what was going on.
''It came out in AS and I was really annoyed, because I didn’t say this.
The interview was with a Croatian journalist from ’24 Hours’ and it also came out in Goal, and in the Italian media- they translated it correctly but I don’t know what happened with AS, they got the translation wrong.’’
Match details, result and original broadcast info
Deportivo La Coruña 0 - 2 Real Madrid
May 14, 2016 11:00amEstadio Municipal de Riazor (A Coruña (La Coruña))This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
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