Controversy

According to newspaper El Mundo, Jesuli was recorded by Iñaki Badiola, president of Real Sociedad, in a conversation where he confirmed that the players of Tenerife received around €6.000 each to lose the last match of the 2007–08 season, against Málaga CF. As a result of the 2–1 away loss the latter achieved promotion, while the Basques remained in the second division.^[5]

Jesuli was injured at that time so he did not play the aforementioned match. During the conversation, Badiola and Jesuli also speculate that the possible money dealer was Lorenzo Sanz (former president of Real Madrid), whose son, Fernando, occupied the chairman position with Málaga.

The captains of Tenerife denied such accusations, while stating that Jesuli's was probably joking or under pressure to make such declarations.^[6] Lorenzo Sanz declared that the accusation was ridiculous, while a spokesperson for the Royal Spanish Football Federation initially affirmed that they already knew the case but it was investigated and rejected at that time; the federation, however, later denied that there were any current formal complaints about possible bribery, as the spokesperson's declarations were actually about a different match.

Surprisingly, a few hours later, Jesuli also denied that Tenerife's players received money to arrange the match in a press release, whereas Badiola insisted in the media that he received consent from the player to record the conversation, and that the latter was ready to go further with the issue.^[7]

A few days later, El Mundo published the second part of the recorded conversation, where Jesuli is supposed to show that he knew Badiola was recording the conversation.^[8]