Former Super Eagles’ striker, Ikechukwu Uche has finally been declared innocent in a wide-spread case of match fixing involving him from his days at Real Zaragoza of Spain, megasportsarena.com gathered.
Although he spent just two seasons at the modest Spanish club, IK and 35 other players were accused of being involved in underground dealings to fix a match in the top-flight La Liga, but the long-drawn case eventually ended with all the accused declared guiltless.
It is celebration for Uche and the other 35 players that had been on trial for almost ten years in Spain’s most high-profile match-fixing case, after a Spanish judge issued the not guilty verdict, which was based on his assertion that there was not enough evidence to convict those that had been on trial, including former Mexico coach, Javier Aguirre, who is now with CD Leganes.
With Uche found among the numbers, more than 40 people were accused of fixing the Spanish league game between Levante and Zaragoza at the end of the 2010/11 season but, while the ex-international and his colleagues were all freed, the judge convicted two former officials of the club , the then-president, Agapito Iglesias and director, Javier Porquera.
Both ex-top shots of the club were accused of fraud and eventually got sentences of 15-months in prison, but they are not likely to face jail time because convictions of less than two are often suspended years for first-time offenders in Spain.
All a total of 35 players were mentioned in the allegations, the investigations focused mainly on four cases involving Ikechukwu, Leo Franco, Ponzio and Agapito Iglesias, who were all fingered for fishes conduct during the encounter at Estadio Ciudad de Valencia, in which the Nigerian star played for 55 minutes before he was replaced by Braulio Nóbrega.
It is a huge escape for Ikechukwu, who also played for Racing Ferol, Getafe, Recreativo Huelva, Villarreal, Granada and Málaga in Spain as well as Tigres UANL of Mexico, as all accused players in the scandal were facing two years in prison and six-year bans from football.
The once-fiery petit striker, who now plies his trade for Gimnàstic in the Spanish lower division, arrived in The Land of The Armada before the age of 20, amassed a total of 194 La Laiga matches and scored 42 goals during nine seasons in the top-flight.
Uche, who appeared for Nigeria in two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations (2008 and 2013) was born in Aba, Abia State, where he began playing with Amanze United before moving to Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) side, Iwuanyanwu Nationale of Owerri.
Aged 18, he moved to Racing Ferrol in the Spanish second division and appeared in 24 games for the club, but could not save the Galician team from relegation, thus causing him to move on to Huelva, for $300,000, and scored 12 goals in his first year.
He became the league’s top scorer in the 2005/06 campaign at 20 year-old, in 28 appearances, during which he hit five braces, and The Andalusians returned as champions to La Liga after a three-year absence, but he was soon on the move to Getafe, where he spent two seasons.
Ironically, he soon had bitter-sweet stories to tell at his fourth club in Spain, as the match-fixing scandal entwined him at Zaragoza, which he joined in July 2009 and he was unveiled officially on the 22nd of the same month, after signing a four-year contract.
However, in only his second match, he suffered a severe knee injury, as hios side lost 4-1 away to Sevilla, and he went on to spend seven months and, despite starting the 2010–11 pre-season drills with the club, he suffered another knee injury that ruled him out for six months.
His return to action took place on February 19, 2011 as he played 20 minutes in a 1-0 home loss to Atlético Madrid, hitting Los Rojiblancos’ then first choice goalkeeper, David de Gea’s bar with an individual effort in the dying minutes of the game.
On March 2, 2011, Uche made his first start of the season, at home against Athletic Bilbao and scored in the 55th minute to help his side get a 2–1 win, but his days with La Aragonese ended in a storm at the end of the campaign, as match-fixing allegations rocked the squad.
Chimaobi Victor@chimas2010