Football club 'faked player's death to get out of game'
An Irish soccer team has apologised after faking the death of one of its player.
Ballybrack FC apologised to its fans on Wednesday after the team told the league one of its players had died on Friday.
The team reportedly told the Leinster Senior League that Fernando Nuno La Fuente had died.
The team’s game against Arklow Town, which was slated to take place on Saturday, was cancelled as a result of the news.
The league even held a moment of silence for La Fuente during games the entire weekend, according to the Irish Times.
La Fuente, however, wasn’t dead.
After doing some digging, the league became suspicious, chairman David Moran told RTÉ Sport.
“We were told he was flown back to Spain on the Saturday. Straight away, that rang alarm bells for us. How would you die early on Friday morning and be flown back to Spain on the Saturday?
“It started to unravel then. We rang and we couldn’t get any answers out of them (the club).
“We checked the hospitals, we checked everywhere. Nobody could find anything about this young fella.
“Obviously, some of his teammates released stuff on social media saying he went back to Spain four weeks ago.”
The Leinster Senior League have confirmed that Ballybrack FC player Fernando Nuno La Fuente is not dead. A rep for the club informed the LSL he had died in a car accident last week. La Fuente is alive & well, story about his death was an apparent effort to get a game postponed pic.twitter.com/bEGnfs8bE8
— Darren Cleary (@RadioCleary) November 27, 2018
Ballybrack described the mishap as a mistake.
“It has come to the attention of both the club, senior players and the management team that a gross error of judgement has occurred emanating from correspondence sent from a member of the senior set up management team to the Leinster Senior League,” a Facebook statement read.
“As of this evening an emergency meeting was held and the person in question has been relieved of all footballing duties, within Ballybrack FC, its senior team and roles within the club itself. The club has contacted Fernando to confirm his whereabouts, wellbeing and are thankful for his acceptance of our apology on this matter.
“This grave and unacceptable mistake was completely out of character and was made by a person who has been experiencing severe personal difficulties unbeknownst to any other members of the club.
“At this stage we can only offer our sincere apologies to the Leinster Senior League, our opponents Arklow Town FC and the host of clubs and football people who made contact with us or offered messages of support in recent days.”
However the league does not believe it was an honest mistake.
The Leinster Senior League thinks Ballybrack FC made the announcement to get out of Saturday’s game.
Moran called that move “extreme” and “ridiculous.”
The league has launched an investigation into the matter.
