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Saturday November 21, 2009

Police expose Europe’s biggest match-fixing syndicate

BOCHUM: A match-fixing ring with more than 200 suspected members fixed or tried to fix around 200 matches across Europe, including three in the Champions League, in what UEFA called the biggest betting scandal in Europe.

Police in Germany, Britain, Austria and Switzerland staged simultaneous raids, arresting 15 people and seizing ‚1mil in cash or goods as part of an investigation into the suspected manipulation of games across nine European leagues.

Bochum police said at a news conference yesterday that 200 people were suspected of being part of the ring that tried to rig about 200 matches.

Some 32 matches in Germany’s lower divisions as well as dozens of First or Second Division matches in Turkey, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia were under investigation.

The investigation, which un­­earthed what UEFA representative Peter Limacher called Europe’s biggest ever betting affair, included only matches played in 2009.

“We at UEFA are stunned by the magnitude of this,” Limacher told reporters.

Twelve matches in the Europa Lea­gue, the second-tier club competi­tion behind the elite Champions Lea­gue, were also under suspicion, Bochum police official Ralf Ziegler said.

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. — Reuters

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