Marbella will face next Sunday (12:00 hours) a dramatic match against Yeclano where their future is at stake. The team trained by Abraham García does not depend on himself to stay in the Second RFEF because he needs to beat the Murcian team, already relegated, and that the direct confrontation between the two rivals that precede him in the standings, Las Palmas Atlético and Recre Granada, does not end in a draw.
It is a complex situation that has Marbella fans in suspense. It turns out that the affiliates of Las Palmas and Granada just have to tie their game to achieve their salvation, regardless of the result that Marbella obtain against those of Yecla. Inevitably a famous word appears 'biscotto'
This word, which literally means ‘cookie’, began to be used in Italy when, at the 2004 European Championship, Sweden and Denmark tied their match, eliminating ‘la squadra azzurra’. The transalpine press considered that both Nordic teams had agreed to this beneficial match. Since then ‘biscotto’ is associated in football with ‘fix’ or self-interested arrangement of two to harm a third.
To sum up. Marbella needs victory, for Las Palmas Atlético to defeat Granada or for the people of Granada to beat the insular because the Costa del Sol have a better particular coefficient than these two teams. But never a tie between the two. This would send them to the fifth category.
It is evident that the Marbella fans are with the fly behind their ears and who else who least takes it for granted that the event between affiliates will end in a tie. But from Marbella they are calm in this sense, convinced that these two teams are going to go out to compete and win with sportsmanship and confident that theirs will comply with the first part of the plan.
The most famous 'biscotto' in Spain
Throughout history there have been many cases in which various teams, underground or not, have agreed on results that benefited both to the detriment of a third party. Perhaps the most famous occurred on the last day of the season 1977-78. Betis needed to defeat Real Sociedad and wait for Hercules and Burgos to not tie their match so as not to be relegated to Second. Even Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, who in those years was a young businessman, offered a bonus of five million pesetas (250,000 current euros) to Hercules for beating Burgos and … the same amount to the Burgos for defeating Alicante. It was useless because these teams drew 0-0 in an infamous game without shots on goal and a tongo feeling. Betis descended.
So Marbella clings to the burning nail of 'fair play' of their rivals and, of course, their own effectiveness to avoid going to Third RFEF, a double decline that would make a catastrophic season even worse.