Under suspicion a Boca Juniors match

The Argentine justice investigates whether the expulsion of the Agropecuario player Milton Leyendeker for his criminal kick to Zeballos in a Cup match is related to sports betting

Exequiel Zeballos (Boca), successfully operated on Leyendeker’s hard tackle

08/19/2022 07:52 CESTUpdated 08/19/2022 08:05 CEST

The Argentine justice system has announced that it has opened an investigation into whether sports betting played a role in the expulsion of a player from Agricultural in the match against Boca Juniors corresponding to the Argentine Cup this month.

Milton Leyendeker received a red card eight minutes into the match on August 21 for a hard tackle on Exequiel Zeballos, player who by the way a few years ago was followed by FC Barcelona. Boca won the match 1-0 but Zeballos suffered a serious ankle injury that required surgery. “The prosecutor (Celsa Ramírez) is investigating whether there were bets on whether there would be an Agropecuario player expelled before 10 minutes of the game,” says the Buenos Aires City Prosecutor’s Office on its Twitter account.

Local media first reported that gambling might have been involved. “We want to see if there is any truth to the media reports,” a source from the prosecutor’s office told Reuters, adding that such betting would be illegal.

Leyendeker said the idea that he deliberately got himself expelled was “totally crazy.” “Am I going to leave my team with one less, playing against Boca, in a game that everyone wants to play?” he was quoted as saying by local media publication Infobae. “Something like this has never happened to me.”