Champions league matchfixing

[Epic Swindle]

By David Millward in Bochum

At first sight the October 2009 Champions League clash between Debrecen and Fiorentina encapsulated why football is such a compelling sport.

 

The Italians won 4-3. Adrian Mutu, the former Chelsea player who had served a drugs ban appearing to complete his redemption by scoring twice as Fiorentina led 4-0 at half-time.

 

Back came the Hungarians, the ball flying into the net from the most unlikely of angles three times to complete what would in football parlance have been described as a "seven-goal thriller".

 

It was, alas, too good to be true. The match was, according to German prosecutors, one of 47 which were allegedly rigged by a ring led by Ante Sapina, a 35-year-old Croatian who had already served a jail term for match fixing.

 

This week, as most of European football was looking forward to a mouthwatering conclusion of this season's Champions League when Barcelona and Manchester United meet at Wembley, the fallout from the biggest match-fixing case ever to come before a court continued almost unnoticed.

 

On Thursday, Debrecen's goalkeeper in the Fiorentina match Vukasin Poleksic lost an appeal against a two-year Uefa ban stemming from the match.

 

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the ban, imposed because Poleksic had failed to report that fixers approached him before the match. CAS said it could not prove that the result was manipulated.

 

On the same day as Poleksic heard his fate a court in Bochum in the heart of the industrial Ruhr, the trial of Sapina and six other men accused of the biggest scandal in football's history resumed.

 

Prosecutors are examining 47 games in court, but police suspect that more than 300 games in nine European leagues, the Europa League, an under-21 international and even a World Cup qualifying match may have been manipulated by Sapina's gang.

 

http://www.telegraph...-hits-home.html

 

Wasn't they in our group?

Edited May 8, 2011 by Epic Swindle

[Hassony]

it was

 

we should demand to be included in the CL next season as we were clearly cheated out there

[Benzo-13]

it was

 

we should demand to be included in the CL next season as we were clearly cheated out there

Or some recompensation. Bloody hell.

[_00_deathscar]

We got f***ed. Why do we always get f***ed? (1965)

[surf]

we were abysmal in most of those 6 games and deserved feck all

[aka Dus]

we were abysmal in most of those 6 games and deserved feck all

 

Say it ain't so, Rafa.....