Euro 2008 unaffected by dossier on match-fixing

Published on Monday 3 December 2007 00:43

UEFA extinguished any hope of a back-door route to Euro 2008 for Scotland or England by reiterating that none of the games in the qualifying tournament are included in their dossier of matches which may have been fixed.

European football's governing body announced ahead of yesterday's Euro 2008 draw that they were working in conjunction with Europol to investigate matches which may have been fixed as part of illegal betting activity.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported that 26 matches were under scrutiny including games in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign and claimed the matches involved teams from eastern and southern Europe, including Croatia.

That led to speculation in Sunday newspapers in England that Slaven Bilic's side could have been implicated and therefore may face expulsion, but UEFA director of communications William Gaillard made clear again yesterday that no Euro 2008 match was under suspicion.

"There is nothing at all from the European Championships. It is pure fantasy that it involved Croatia," he said. "There is no chance of England or Scotland having a back way into the finals."

Gaillard confirmed the only game currently being "officially investigated" is an Intertoto Cup second-round match played this summer between Bulgarians Cherno More and Macedonia's Makedonija on 7 July, which Cherno More won 4-0. The Bulgarian club have strongly denied any wrongdoing.

"It's an extremely unpleasant case but we think that the charges are unwarranted," Cherno More's lawyer Mihail Statev said after the investigation was confirmed last week.

There are 14 other games played this season which UEFA has suspicions about.

"We have set up an early warning system in recent years with betting companies and the help of the police. There are always investigations going on," Gaillard told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme yesterday.

"Whenever there is suspicion we try to gather information to try to see if this is a normal pattern, or not. At any given time there may be 10 to 15 games that we are looking at.

"In this case the only game being officially investigated is the one in the Intertoto Cup because our inspectors have decided there is enough information to open a procedure.

"I do not have an exact figure [of matches being investigated], in most cases it is just suspicion. It is only in one match that there is an investigation. That is a match that deals with the Intertoto Cup second round, played in the summer. It was not a decisive match in the tournament.

"There are another 14 matches that our disciplinary body have suspicions about, and they are only preliminary rounds of club competitions."