'I would ask to investigate it': Espanyol ex-president suggests Barca's loss to Valladolid was rigged

"I was watching the [Real Valladolid - Barca] game with the peace of mind that I knew what would happen. I expected it, nothing surprised me," former Espanyol president Joan Collet told Diario AS after Barcelona lost to Valladolid 3-1.

"Xavi had said that they would win. Naturally, what else was he going to say? (...) Barca's result not only harms one team, Espanyol, but five [Getafe, Cadiz, Almeria and Celta, who are also fighting relegation]. Let the fans of each team draw their own conclusions.

"La Liga likes to investigate everything so much... if I were at Espanyol, perhaps I would tell them: 'Why not take a look at this game? (...)

"If Celta fight relegation on the last matchday [Barca will play Celta Vigo on June 4], the same thing will happen again. There is no doubt about that, this shouldn't surprise us any more," Collet also said.

Basically, Espanyol's ex-president believes that Barca lost to Real Valladolid on purpose to improve his former team's chances of relegation.

But why is he actually surprised to see Blaugrana play this bad against relegation-bound teams? We have already secured the league title and we don't use our best starting lineups, so it's obvious that the results have got worse.

And anyway, why should we even worry about relegation-threatened teams?

Instead of developing conspiracy theories, Collet should better back his club and hope that they will gain the needed number of points to secure a spot in the next season's La Liga.