News
Unusual visitors
A number of wild boars have been spotted
at night in the centre of Nerja. A video
recently circulated showed adults and
their young wandering around calle
Pintada and visiting the Balcón de Europa.
Experts say the animals come into
populated areas in search of food and
water as the countryside feels the effect of
the drought.
Málaga coach fired
after “sextortion” claim
Málaga Football Club suspended its
head coach, Víctor Sánchez del Amo,
on January 7 after an intimate video of
him began to circulate on social media.
During the same week, del Amo
(known as Victor) complained that the
president of Málaga CF, Abdullah ben
Nasser Al Thani, and its general
director, Richard Shaheen, had both
“cheated him from the beginning with
the planning of the workforce.”
extortion.” At a press conference on
January 15, Victor said that, when
suspended, he asked the Club to pay
him what he was owed and he would
quit. However, after support from
Málaga fans but haggling from the
Club’s management, he claims he was
fired, a move which he described as
“totally unjust.”
On January 11, the Club announced
Victor had been dismissed. In a
statement, it added that the action had
been taken for “disciplinary reasons”
and “serious damage caused to the
Club by recent non-sporting events.” National Police investigating Victor’s
allegations of blackmail have arrested
at least three people believed to have
circulated the video of Victor wearing a
Málaga CF shirt but with his genitals
exposed. Their investigation is
continuing and further arrests have not
been ruled out.
Almost 1,400 users of electric scooters
were fined in Málaga last year, according
to the city’s Local Police. The most
common offence was parking scooters in
pedestrian areas, instead of in one of the
28 areas defined for that purpose. New
by-laws regulating the use of the machines
is expected to come into force in May. Victor says he received a “sextortion”
demand from blackmailers for
€20,000 to be paid in Bitcoins if he
wanted the video suppressed, and he
himself reported this to police on
Oviedo on January 5. He described
himself as a victim of “a crime against
my privacy with harassment and Victor began work as head coach at
Málaga in April 2019, after a playing
career which started at Real Madrid in
the mid-90s. He has been succeeded by
a former Málaga CF player, Sergio
Pellicer who has been coaching
Malaga's reserve side, Atlético
Malagueño since last summer.
New boss Málaga’s initiative on noise
Scooter fines
A 51-year-old Málaga socialist has become
the first woman to head the Guardia Civil
in the force’s 175-year history. María
Gámez has been the government’s sub-
delegate in the province since September
2018 and her new role was announced last
month. A lawyer by profession, Gámez is
from Estepona and took her degree at
Málaga University before entering politics
in the 90s.
Healthy sales
Sales of non-new houses in the province
of Málaga rose by 6.9% in 2019, bucking
the national trend which recorded a fall of
1.3% after three years of increases,
according to on-line agents Fotocasa. Only
the Balearics and Santa Cruz de Tenerife
returned figures higher than Málaga. The
average price in the province at the end of
the year was €2,244 per square metre,
compared with €1,846 nationally.
First babies
The Axarquía’s first baby of 2020 was
born in Vélez-Málaga hospital at 6.30am
on January 2. Oliver is the son of proud
parents Gloria and Ívan who live in Nerja.
Two babies tied for the first new-born in
Spain, both born at just two minutes past
midnight on New Year’s Day in Valencia
and Madrid.
Málaga Town Hall will not permit any
new bars or restaurants in city centre
areas which it considered to be already
“saturated.” The five-year moratorium
on issuing new licences is part of a war
on noise levels and applies in 103
streets where this exceeds 65 decibels
in daytime and 55 decibels at night.
Residents have complained that, with
the level reaching 90 decibels on
occasions, getting to sleep at night can
become a problem. As a result, Málaga
authorities began recording noise
levels a decade ago and published the
results in 2016. At that time, it planned
to reduce noise in the worst affected
areas, which included 98 streets in the
centre and a five more close to the
University campus.
Measures, which went into effect last
month, include earlier closing hours
and fewer municipally organised
outdoor activities. Bars and restaurants
must close their doors and windows at
11.00pm while those with tables on
pavements have had their opening
hours curtailed. The number of special
days, such as during Easter and
Christmas, when owners can extend
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their opening hours has been reduced
from 70 to 20 per year. The new
regulations have not been welcomed
universally, with the Málaga
Hospitality Association branding them
“an interference in the free market in a
key area of the city,” and predicting job
losses as a result. Residents say it is too
little too late.
TV gang
Three people were arrested in Málaga
last month by National Police
investigating a gang illegally supplying
TV signals over the internet. They are
amongst 15 people detained across
Spain who are believed to have been
providing the service to around 10,000
clients. Investigators say the equipment
seized had the capacity to serve half a
million viewers.
Caves result
Nerja Caves saw an increase of 2.4 per
cent in visitor numbers last year,
compared with 2018. A total of 441,590
people visited the caverns at Maro
which were marking the 60th
anniversary of their discovery, 70 per
cent of visitors in 2019 were Spanish.