Macedonian club charged with match fixing

Posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 10:04 pm and is filed under News.

Macedonian football club FK Pobeda has been named as the suspect in the latest match-fixing scandal to hit European football.

The club has been charged with influencing the result of their 2004 UEFA Europa League fixture against Armenian club FC Pyunik. The  Armenian club won 3-1 away during the first leg of the UEFA Europa League tie. The second leg ended in a draw, resulting in Pobeda’s elimination from the tournament.

According to UEFA Pobeda deliberately lost the first leg of the tie in order to benefit a third party betting on the outcome of the tie between the two clubs. The matter was brought to light by bookmakers who reported unusual betting patterns to UEFA.

“Illegal betting can kill our sport,” UEFA president Michel Platini told reporters a day prior to the announcement of the suspect in the match-fixing scandal. “If the results are fixed in advance, football has no reason to exist.”

UEFA is launching an all-out assault against match fixing in football, which includes appointing additional match-fixing investigators and enlisting the assistance of international police body Interpol.