May 9, 2008
Portuguese champions FC Porto have been
barred from competing in next season's Champions League
over a match-fixing scandal, European football's governing
body UEFA said on Wednesday.
"The UEFA Control and Disciplinary
Body has decided FC Porto will not be admitted to the
2008/09 UEFA Champions League after studying a matter
involving alleged bribery of referees in Portuguese domestic
matches in 2003/04," UEFA said in a statement.
A brief statement on the club's website
read: 'FC Porto and their president have been notified
by the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP)
of the accusations and investigations concerning matches
between FC Porto and Estrela da Amadora, and Beira Mar
and FC Porto.'
Last month, Porto were found guilty by the
Portuguese league of fixing two league matches in 2003/04,
the same season they won the Champions League - the world's
richest club competition.
As a result the club was fined 150,000 euros,
docked six points, the club's president Jorge Pinto da
Costa was suspended for two years and Boavista were relegated
to the second division for their part in match-fixing.
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April 26, 2008
The Malaysian FA has threatened to suspend
major domestic and international competitions in the country
over a match-fixing scandal that has rocked local football.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM)
deputy president Khairy Jamaluddin said he would have
no hesitation in halting June's Malaysia Cup and an Under-23
international tournament next month should more match-fixing
cases emerge within the next two weeks, The Star newspaper
reported on Saturday.
Malaysian police and the Anti-Corruption
Agency are investigating alleged match-fixing in the Super
League and on Thursday detained five current and one former
player from the Sarawak team.
Also under investigation is fellow Super
League side Police FA for "poor performances".
Sarawak are bottom of the 13-team league while Police
are 11th.
"The nation's image will be tarnished
if any of the national players are hauled up by the authorities
during this international (under-23) tournament,"
Khairy was quoted by The Star as saying.
This is the third big match-fixing scandal
to hit Southeast Asia in April.
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April 3, 2008
Asian Football Confederation chief Mohamed
bin Hammam on Thursday called match-fixing a "cancer"
that is destroying the game after an illegal approach
to players in Singapore.
His comments follow allegations that two
players of Maldives side Victory SC were approached on
Tuesday night to throw their AFC Cup match here against
Singapore's Home United.
Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation
Bureau and the AFC are now investigating after being alerted
by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).
Home United won Wednesday night's game 2-1.
Local reports said Argentinians Marcos Aguirre
and Luciano Theiler were approached by an unidentified
man at the Royal Hotel where the Maldives team was staying.
They declined his offers to throw the match
and reported the matter to team officials who in turn
informed the FAS.
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February 14, 2008
LIAONING Guangyuan striker Zhao Zhipeng
was jailed for seven months on Thursday morning for accepting
bribes from his coach for his part in match-fixing S-League
matches last year.
He had pleaded guilty on Wednesday to receiving
a bribe from Liaoning team manager Wang Xin to help lose
a match against Gombak United by more than three goals
on Nov 1 last year. For his part, Zhao, 26, received $2,000
after Liaoning lost the match to Gombak by 0-5.
Six of his team-mates were also charged
last week - the largest number of players allegedly involved
in a 'kelong' scandal since the S-League games started
in 1996.
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January 27, 2008
Benin's German-born coach Reinhard Fabisch
first raised the alarm when he revealed he'd been approached
by a man last Saturday claiming to represent a Singapore-based
betting syndicate trying to 'buy' Benin to fix their opening
Group B game with Mali.
Fabisch said the man who came up to him
at the team's hotel in Sekondi had told him he represented
a company based in Singapore which could fix games across
Africa.
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August 9, 2007
In an interview published Aug 9 in Le Parisien
newspaper, Domenech was quoted as saying that there had
been a "bought referee" for a match between
France's youth squad - which he once coached - and Italy
during a qualifier for the Sydney Olympics.
"I've rarely been so ripped off,"
Domenech was quoted as saying. "When you get fooled
once, there's always a doubt (afterward). There are arrangements
in Italian soccer."
Uefa president Michel Platini had warned
that Domenech would be sanctioned unless he could provide
proof of the alleged match-fixing.
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May 10, 2006
The Turin club is at the centre of an investigation
by the Italian football federation (FIGC) after telephone
conversations recorded last season between two Juventus
directors and high-ranking FIGC officials were published.
In the conversations, Juventus general director
Luciano Moggi tells Pierluigi Pairetto, who at the time
was responsible for selecting referees for the FIGC, which
officials he would like assigned for his team's Serie
A matches.
Juventus ended the season by winning the
championship for a 28th time.
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February 4, 2005
It began on Jan. 19 when four Berlin referees
reported to the German Soccer Federation, the DFB, that
they suspected another referee, 25-year-old Robert Hoyzer,
had manipulated match results.
After an investigation by the DFB, Hoyzer
admitted that a betting ring run by the Croatian mafia
paid him to fix the results of three lower-division games
and a German Cup first-round match.This has put the country
reeling from its biggest soccer scandal in more than 30
years. This revelation comes a year before when the country
is to host the World Cup.
Press reports claimed that Hoyzer received
between $65,000 and $85,000 for his "favors"
- a large sum of money for referees, who receive $4,500
per German-Cup game and $2,000 per lower-division game.
Hoyzer also reportedly has linked other
officials to the scandal. On Friday, a referee in the
top division of German soccer, the Bundesliga, denied
allegations that he, too, had fixed matches.
"I regret my behaviour profoundly and
I excuse myself to the German soccer federation, my referee
colleagues and all soccer fans", said the 25 year
old. In a TV interview he said that other people connected
to soccer were involved and confirmed he had received
a five-digit sum for fixing matches.