European football corruption latest

News on 26 Nov 2009

Another Champions League qualification match and six games from this season’s Europa League have been linked to the European betting scandal, UEFA told the Agence France Presse news agency on Wednesday.
The latest revelations augment three Champions League matches said to be among the 200 games spread across nine countries under investigation by German prosecutors.
The seven additional games involve five clubs which are now being investigated, the agency reports. These are KF Tirana (Albania), FC Dinaburg (Latvia), KS Vllaznia (Albania), NK IB Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Budapest Honved FC (Hungary).
Tirana’s Champions League second qualifying round match with Norwegian side Stabaek on July 21 this year is under suspicion after the sides drew the first-leg 1-1 in Albania before Stabaek won the return game 4-0.
“From the original list of around 40 fixtures in Europe that were considered suspicious in terms of results, we are investigating seven European club competition fixtures,” said UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino.
The Europa League games under suspicion are – both legs of the second qualifying round ties between Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv FC and FC Dinaburg as well as KS Vllaznia against SK Rapid Vienna.
The third round qualifying matches between NK IB Ljubljana and FC Metalurh Donetsk as well as Fenerbahce SK and Budapest Honved FC are also being probed.
Infantino said none of UEFA’s administration staff are under suspicion or investigation and any individuals or clubs found to be corrupt will face criminal prosecution.
“UEFA wishes to stress that it has been co-operating fully with the German police and authorities on the case,” he added.
“Following a request from the German police for information on a number of matches, UEFA was able to assist.
“That was thanks to its Betting Fraud Detection System that has been monitoring all UEFA competitions and European national league first and second-division matches for irregular betting patterns since July 2009.
“UEFA will file criminal complaints, together with the relevant national associations, as soon as possible, against clubs, officials and/or players in those countries concerned.
“We have full trust in our national associations to deal with the cases related to their national competitions and will continue to provide them with our full co-operation and assistance.”
The scandal involves teams from Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.

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