Four years' prison for the Malaga footballers who stabbed captain of Alhaurín team in the chest

Two players who stabbed the captain of the Alhaurín de la Torre football team at the end of a match in Malaga have been jailed for four years.

The footballers had originally been sentenced to 10 years' prison for attempted murder, but SUR can confirm that the Andalusian High Court (TSJA) ordered a retrial where the El Palo players where handed a different fate for stabbing the captain in the chest at the San Ignacio stadium in 2016.

The prosecution had requested up to 12 years in prison in the previous trial, however due to the two players S. A. G. and M. S., both aged 28, paying almost all of the compensation to the victims and a deal between the prosecution and the defence, they have been handed a lighter sentence.

The incident occurred on 20 March 2016, when a third division regional match was played between the Club Deportivo El Palo B team and Alhaurín de la Torre Club de Fútbol at the San Ignacio pitch in Malaga. The captain of the El Palo team was S. A. G., who wore the number four shirt.

The court was told there was "tension" between the defendant S. A. G. and the captain of the Alhaurín de la Torre team, who also wore the number four on his shirt, throughout the match. "S. A. G. took an excessively aggressive attitude towards him and threatened to kill him on several occasions, with phrases such as 'I'm going to kill you' or 'Do you see the minutes? When the minutes pass I'll kill you, we'll meet outside, I'll wait for you'," the court heard.

S.A.G. approached him in the 61st minute, headbutted him and knocked him to the ground. He was cautioned and replaced by another player. S.A.G. took off his team shirt and went to an area of the stands where some of his acquaintances were and continued to threaten to kill the player from Alhaurín, according to the court ruling. The defendant M. S. was also in the crowd - the El Palo player had not been called up for the match.

S. A. G. and M. S. agreed to "kill" the captain of the rival team "when the match was over", court documents showed. After the final whistle, El Palo had won the game and S. A. G., who was with M. S. in the players' tunnel, was called out onto the pitch to celebrate the victory with teammates.

S. A. G. approached the victim, who was congratulating the players and coaches of the El Palo team, and grabbed him by the neck from behind. He "put him in a headlock, leaving him immobile, suffocating him and throwing him to the ground", the magistrate described, "while M. S. approached them and stabbed the young man twice in the left side of the chest with a knife".

Others affiliated with the El Palo club then jumped onto the pitch from the stands to attack the Alhaurino captain, who was lying on the ground. The team and match officials, as well as coaches and some players intervened to prevent continuous blows being directed at the victim who was "lying helpless on the ground".

"If urgent surgery had not been carried out, he would certainly have died," according to the court ruling. One of the stab wounds penetrated 1.5 centimetres into the right ventricle and caused severe cardiac shock. The victim went into cardiacarrest and was resuscitated after CPR was peformed and he took 200 days to recover.

The victim has suffered since the attack and he is unable to carry out day-to-day tasks he once used to. He must also have constant medical check-ups as the scarring left on his heart can cause stroke or heart failure, the ruling also showed.

The defendants have so far paid 77,300 euros in compensation. In addition to four years' prison, S. A. G. must also stay 1,000 metres away from the victim for 10 years. M. S. faces the same sentence, as well as an additional year in prison for injuring a coach with the same knife after the teammate had tried to stop him.