Fuming Real Sociedad hint at conspiracy

Real Sociedad are fuming over Sunday's injury-time penalty winner awarded to Real Betis.

Betis striker Dani was judged to have been held inside the area by ref Tellez Sanchez. Fernando converted the spot-kick to give Betis a controversial 3-2 win.

Last night, Sociedad president Jose Luis Astiazaran rapped: "It isn't the sort of thing that we should be thinking about, but I am certain that the last decisions from the match officials and from the Liga committee have not benefited us."

"Somebody clearly does not want us to succeed, but we are not going to make it easy for them."

Astiazaran added, "Everybody could see it wasn't a penalty."

Real winger Valery Karpin also angrily said, "It was robbery, it was totally against us."

Teammate Jose Barkero was even more forthright: "The referee made sure we lost. It is important to raise our concerns to see if we have a case."

"We are on top of the Liga and are scaring people."