SIX TOP-FLIGHT football teams have been implicated in possible match-fixing by the European football governing body UEFA, it emerged yesterday.
Cyprus Football Association chairman Costas Koutsokoumnis yesterday handed over to police the case files of three games for further investigation.
Two yellow files and one red, detail three matches which UEFA says could have been fixed for betting purposes.
Yellow files indicate that, according to UEFA, the match may have been fixed whilst red files indicate that UEFA’s investigations have shown that the match was most probably fixed.
Justice Minister Loucas Louca, who received the files, said they “relate to football matches which, according to UEFA, there is a suspicion that prosecutable offences may have occurred”.
The first division matches which UEFA is alleging may have been fixed are the game between Ethnikos Achnas – APOP Kinyras of March 1 and the match between Ermis – Omonoia on February 2.
The match whose details were delivered in the red envelope was the APOP Kinyras – APEP game of March 6.
According to Koutsokoumnis a fourth file is expected to arrive from UEFA, also in red, for the match between APEP-Enosis Neon Paralimniou, which took place on March 13.
Koutsokoumnis said: “There is a detailed electronic record, minute by minute, of the amount of money peoplr were betting.”
He added that the amounts involved added up to “hundreds of thousands of euros.”
Louca said the authorities “will do whatever possible to conclude this investigation soon.”
But he added that it was unlikely the investigation could be resolved quickly because it involved a very large number of people and concerned matches which were in the past.
“As to how a match is fixed, it can be fixed by the referees on their own, or by footballers and there may or may not be involvement of the supervisory bodies in the affair,” Koutsokoumnis said.
Louca noted that the first step which authorities would take was to assess the cases to establish the offences.
He speculated as to the extent to which theft could also be involved when “someone bets on a match in the knowledge that it has been fixed, or who took part in fixing it himself”.
Koutsokoumnis expressed the need for swift action in the case, and taking statements from the foreign footballers involved prior to May 10 when the current season finishes and their contracts run out.
“In all of these teams foreign footballers are involved who, of course, once the season is over will not be allowed to set their foot in Cyprus again, some of them,” he said.
