How Córdoba won the league for Real

Córdoba's honorary president, Rafael Campanero, revealed that Real Madrid gave each Córdoba player 100,000 pesetas for having beaten Barcelona 1-0 in the second-to-last game of the 1971-72 season, thereby handing the league title over to Real Madrid. It looked like winning the league would be a pushover for Barça. All they had to do was beat Córdoba CF, floundering at the bottom of the league table, and hope that Real would lose in the Calderón – which is exactly what 'Los Blancos' went and did. But the Catalans' trip to Andalusia proved to be a nightmare. The match referee, Pascual Tejerina, failed to see three clear penalties in Cordoba's box. However, during the home team's only assault on the Barça goal, Manolín Cuesta dived at Rifé's feet in the area and the ref blew his whistle, pointing to the spot. The ball was blasted home, Barcelona lost 1-0 and Real Madrid won the league because of it. Pepe Escalante, who was Córdoba's captain that season, remembers how, apart from the 100,000 pesetas paid to each player by Real, "we were also paid 4,000 pesetas by Córdoba, which was the normal amount for winning a game" back then. Córdoba will once again face the Catalan set-up in the Camp Nou this Saturday, 42 years later.