European soccer rocked by match-fixing scandal
Champions League targeted as ring attempted to rig games
Saturday November 21 2009
A match-fixing ring with more than 200 suspected members fixed or tried to fix around 200 matches across Europe, including three Champions League matches.
Last night the scam was described as the biggest betting scandal in Europe by UEFA -- European soccer's governing body.
The inquiry is being led from Germany and one of the investigators, Andreas Bachmann, who is prosecutor for Bochum state, west Germany, said initial estimates put the illegal gains at about €10m. But he added that the figure was very much just "the tip of the iceberg".
Police in Germany, Britain, Austria and Switzerland cracked down on the ring on Thursday, staging simultaneous raids that resulted in 15 arrests in Germany and two in Switzerland.
Officers also seized €1m in cash or goods as part of the investigation into the suspected manipulation of games across nine European leagues.
Some 50 properties were searched in the four countries.
"We at UEFA are stunned by the magnitude of this," UEFA representative Peter Limacher told reporters at a Bochum police news conference yesterday.
"This is undoubtedly the biggest match-fixing scandal that European football has ever seen.
"Now we must do everything to make sure those referees, players and officials are taken to justice."
Bochum police said 200 people were suspected of involvement in attempts to rig about 200 matches in 2009, some during the current season.
No details of which teams or players and officials were involved have been released.
"There was a group of individuals who did or tried to influence matches with money and make illegal profit through the placing of bets," said Mr Bachmann.
A City of London spokeswoman said in a statement: "Following a request from German law-enforcement officers, City of London police assisted in the execution of a search warrant in the Greater London area on Thursday."
She added that no arrests had been made and just one property was searched.
Matches
Some 32 matches in Germany's lower divisions as well as dozens of first- or second-division matches in Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia were under investigation.
Twelve matches in the Europa League, the second-tier European club competition behind the elite Champions League, were also under suspicion as well as several Under-21 European Championship qualifiers.
In 2005, Germany was rocked by a betting scandal involving Bundesliga-referee Robert Hoyzer, who rigged matches as part of an international illegal-betting gang and was sentenced to two years and five months in prison.
"Even if German professional football is only partly involved we will fully support the effort to expose this," German League chief Reinhard Rauball said yesterday. "We owe it to the fans to do everything within our power to offer a clean competition."
"But first the presumption of innocence applies. But it is clear we cannot tolerate even a single game being manipulated."
The German Football Association (DFB) said in a statement that UEFA and the Bochum prosecutors could count on their full support and that of the League Association.
DFB president Dr Theo Zwanziger said: "We are pleased that the state authorities investigate all suspicious circumstances with a high level of competence and seriousness.
"Because criminal acts are concerned, the Bochum public prosecutor is in charge of the operation.
"We are very thankful for their active work and they enjoy our full trust."
The DFB ruled out the possibility of games being replayed if they were proved to have been manipulated.
League Association president Dr Reinhard Rauball added: "We owe it to the fans that we do everything in our power to guarantee a clean competition.
"But first the presumption of innocence applies. But it is clear we cannot tolerate even a single game being manipulated."
Earlier this year Uefa President Michel Platini described match-fixing as the "greatest danger to football".
German football was rocked by a match-fixing scandal in 2005 when referee Robert Hoyzer confessed to trying to manipulate games in the second division, third division and German Cup.
His testimony revealed a network of corruption linked to a Croatian gambling syndicate.
- Karolos Grohmann
Irish Independent
