Sevilla defender Kike Salas under investigation over yellow cards

The Sevilla defender Kike Salas has been arrested by police for allegedly deliberately getting booked so that his friends could win bets. The 22-year-old was detained by police in Seville on Tuesday and subsequently released without charge having exercised his right to silence.

He remains under investigation and will be called before an investigating judge for questioning. According to Spanish law and the rules of the football federation he could face the loss of his licence for two to five years and a jail sentence between six months and three years, as well as a fine between €3,006 and €30,051 (£25,275)

An ongoing investigation led by the Spanish police alleges that two friends of the Sevilla defender made around €10,000 in little over a month betting on Salas getting yellow cards, according to reports of a story first broken by El Confidencial. In total, they are said to have placed around 30 bets at six bookmakers in the town of Moron de la Frontera, 50km from Sevilla, where the 22-year-old is from.

Salas was booked 10 times last season, seven of them in the club’s final nine games, at a time when Sevilla, who had pulled away from the relegation zone and into safety, had nothing to play for. Salas played eight of those, missing the match against Mallorca in week 32 through suspension. Having served that ban he was booked in five of the final six games, with yellow cards shown in minutes 94, 88, 94, 45 (+2) and 36. In the game in which he was not shown a yellow card, against Granada in week 34, he was taken off injured with 20 minutes remaining. None of the cards drew attention at the time. Six of them were for fouls, one for a confrontation with an opponent.

Two other men were also detained by the police and Salas’s phone was taken as evidence. A short statement from Sevilla said that the club would respect the legal process and the presumption of innocence while the case is ongoing. Salas was back in training on Wednesday morning.

La Liga, which was unaware of the allegations until Tuesday, had asked to participate in the case. Posters warning players against match-fixing are visible at training grounds and stadiums across the country and players are given talks in which they are told that neither they nor their families are allowed to bet on football.

Salas recently renewed his contract at Sevilla on a salary of €360,000 (£303,000) a year.