Valencia president Anil Murthy has said leaked audio footage in which he said he would kill Carlos Soler if he left the club without a transfer fee was edited and taken out of context.
On Monday, the Spanish newspaper Superdeporte published an audio recording which they said was from a private dinner attended by Murthy in April.
In one of the snippets of audio, a man the newspaper identifies as Murthy says he will “kill” 25-year-old Spain international Soler if he leaves the club on a free transfer.
“If you leave for free in January, I’ll kill you,” Murthy is alleged to have said, as per AP.
In the audio footage the man adds: “I’ll put down 100,000 euros to kill (Soler). Because you have to bring in money, you grew up in the academy, and the club has invested a lot of money in you.”
But Valencia have accused the newspaper of running a “smear campaign” against the club.
Valencia did not deny the audio depicts Murthy in a statement published on Monday. But they added the recordings were “taken out of context, from a private conversation and recorded illegitimately”.
“The recordings published in Superdeporte are edited and adulterated to convey a false or biased narrative, within the context of a general conversation, and to try to generate controversy,” their statement said.
It added: “This move is part of the smear campaign against Valencia CF that Superdeporte have been carrying out in recent months.
“This matter is in the hands of the Valencia CF legal department, which is already studying the measures to be taken against Superdeporte and its director.”
(Photo: Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)
