Villarreal News, October 7: Rukavina out a month or more; Uche testifies, and more

Javi Mata reported today that Antonio Rukavina's ankle has now been examined (the swelling finally went down enough) and he will be out between 4 and 5 weeks.   Since we have another international break in November, if he's not able to play the week of the 6th (Zurich on Thursday, Espanyol on Sunday) then he wouldn't be able to return until November 23, when we host Getafe.

I keep forgetting to congratulate our Villarreal C squad, who defeated Jove Espanyol on Sunday 4-0, their second win of the season.  A win at Novelda this weekend would get them out of the relegation zone.

Other news:

Ike Uche testified Monday in the ongoing probe into the Zaragoza-Levante match and, as expected, said he didn't participate in any sort of wrongdoing. It sounded as if his testimony was quite short.

Uche: I didn't participate in any sort of fixing-- RTVE.es

A Spanish magazine, Interviú, has reported that three days before this match, the president of Deportivo La Coruña received a phone call from a former Depor player, telling him the match would be fixed  (with Levante's Sergio Ballesteros implicated as the ringleader as far as receiving and distributing the payment was concerned) and therefore Depor would be relegated.  The publication claimed the player was current Espanyol coach Sergio González.  He has denied this and is  threatening to sue the magazine.

Presi: You're going down, the match will be fixed-- El Mundo

Today, Javier Tebas gave an interview where (in addition to saying Barcelona couldn't play in La Liga if Catalonia became independent, which grabbed most of the headlines) he said the Malaga-Elche match from last season would be investigated.

Tebas: 2 or 3 players from Malaga could be implicated-- La Opinion de Malaga

And, El Pais has a handy table showing moneys owed to the taxman by football clubs in the Primera and Segunda.  "Aplazada"= postponed; "Concursal" refers to debts being handled under the bankruptcy code.  "Vencida" is the overdue category.