Real Betis president Juan Carlos Ollero has denied a claim that deceased club members "voted" when the current board was elected last September.
Betis socio Juan Soria Hurtado has launched a legal objection against votes made at a shareholders meeting on Sept. 23, when Ollero was re-elected as president and Angel Haro and Jose Miguel Lopez Catalan both became club vice presidents.
Soria alleges that official documents were falsified and that votes representing 4,000 shares were invalid, while claiming that 31 of those said to have voted were actually dead at the time.
Jose Nunez Naranjo -- club president in the 1970s -- and former Betis and Spain midfielder Sebastian Alabanda Fernandez (both deceased) are among the names mentioned in the complaint filed with the Guardia Civil authorities.
Initial news coverage of the story has been met with disbelief and anger among some in Andalucia.
Three of the individuals mentioned in the legal complaint have been interviewed and photographed in a Marca story headlined 'These dead people are very much alive,' while family members of other deceased socios say they legally inherited shares and were entitled to vote.
Ollero told an extraordinary news conference that the claims of wrongdoing were completely false and just part of a campaign to discredit a board which had been correctly elected.
"We want to clear up some general questions -- we deny the acts laid out in the legal complaint and any intention to defraud," Ollero said. "The board meeting of Sep. 23 was completely legal, and to the benefit of the club and its legitimate shareholders.
"Of course, neither those accused, nor the board, have taken part in any falsification of documents. The allegations in the complaint are completely arbitrary and an attempt to discredit without cause the candidature which won a majority at the last meeting.
"We are aware that Betis fans consider this reprehensible behaviour and show their backing for the current board and reject what others are saying."
Betis has been wracked by legal challenges and ownership battles since September 2010, when a court embargoed a majority of shares following a judicial investigation into the dealings of until then long-serving president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera.
Claimant Soria was a supporter of Manuel Castano at September's meeting. Castano is an associate of the club's former owner Lopera, who has continued to battle through the courts to regain control of the club.