Football betting scandal 2009

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The soccer betting scandal 2009 describes the manipulation of soccer games for the purpose of betting fraud , which became known in November 2009 in the course of the international investigations under the direction of the Bochum public prosecutor's office . The betting scandal was uncovered through investigations using telecommunications surveillance in the field of organized crime .

Extent of the betting scandal

The 2009 soccer betting scandal is considered the biggest affair in European soccer since the 2005 soccer betting scandal involving referee Robert Hoyzer and the Bundesliga scandal in the 1970/71 season, when numerous players, coaches and officials were involved in postponing matches. The extent and impact are considered to be even greater than the previous manipulations in football. Some newspapers refer to this betting scandal as "the greatest fraud scandal of all time" and Peter Limacher, the head of the disciplinary department of UEFA , speaks of the "greatest fraud scandal that has ever occurred in European football".

According to information from the Bochum public prosecutor's office on November 20, 2009, at least 200 soccer games have been manipulated in nine European countries since the beginning of 2009, 32 of them in Germany. The fraudsters are said to have bribed players, coaches and officials to influence the outcome of the game.

The two Croatian brothers Ante and Milan Sapina were arrested as suspects on November 19, 2009 , who, through fraud with the manipulated games in betting in Asia (provider: SBOBET with license in the Philippines) and Europe, achieved a total of around 10 million euros and have already achieved had to serve a prison sentence after the soccer betting scandal in 2005. Another 15 people in Germany were arrested. Over 50 house searches were carried out in North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Switzerland, Austria and Great Britain. Cash and assets worth more than one million euros were secured. The evaluations of the evidence, as well as the further investigations by the public prosecutor's office, have not yet been completed.

According to Spiegel Online, the European football association UEFA has suspended the Ukrainian referee Oleg Orijechow, who is said to have had personal contact with a member of the betting mafia, in connection with the betting scandal. As a result of investigations by the UEFA anti-corruption unit, he was invited to a personal hearing at the association's headquarters in Nyon.

Affected games and suspects

Germany

In Germany , at least 32 games from the 2nd Bundesliga to the junior division are said to have been manipulated. These are four games in the 2nd Bundesliga, three games in the 3rd division , 18 games in the regional leagues , five major league games and two games from the U-19 area.

In September 2010, the public TV magazine Fakt even reported 13 second and five third division games, 20 regional league games, five major league games and two games in the DFB Cup , five games in the U-19 area and isolated friendlies, that are suspected of being tampered with.

A DFB referee is said to have been bribed by the suspected betting fraudsters at a regional league game in May 2009.

In the course of further investigations, the basketball player of the Brose Baskets from Bamberg, Ivan Pavić , and the Würzburg national league player Kristian Sprecakovic were arrested on November 19, 2009.

Four SSV Ulm 1846 games in the final stages of the 2008/09 regional league season were suspected of being manipulated. On November 27, 2009, in connection with the betting scandal, the club announced the resignation to the Croatian players Davor Kraljevic, Marijo Marinovic and Dinko Radojevic.

The regional soccer team SC Verl suspended the two midfielders Patrick Neumann and Tim Hagedorn from playing and training on November 24, 2009 . The club received information about attempted manipulations in the games against Borussia Mönchengladbach II (4: 3) and against 1. FC Köln II (0: 1) in the 2008/09 season. On November 28, 2009, Neumann confessed to the Bochum public prosecutor that he had received 500 euros and was the first professional to make a confession in the betting scandal. However, he continued to deny that he had actively carried out any manipulation.

The defender Marcel Schuon confirmed to the Bochum public prosecutor that he had planned to manipulate the second division game against FC Augsburg (0: 3) on April 17, 2009 while he was at VfL Osnabrück . In the course of the game, however, he refrained from doing this and also informed the client of this after the game. However, the game ended as desired with 0: 3 and in return Schuon's debts were canceled in five figures. At the beginning of the 2009/10 season, Schuon moved to third division club SV Sandhausen , where he was dismissed from the club without notice at the end of November 2009 due to his information in the betting scandal.

Austria

In Austria , 11 games in the Bundesliga and the first division were affected.

According to UEFA, no Austrian clubs were specifically involved in the betting scandal. Only two Europa League qualification games of SK Rapid Wien against KS Vllaznia Shkodra (5: 0 and 3: 0 for Rapid) were suspected of being manipulated according to press reports. At the beginning of March 2011, betting fraud allegations about the Austrian Bundesliga club Kapfenberger SV became known, whereby according to various media reports players of the club are said to have collected large sums of money to, among other things, the games of the 2009/10 season against FC Red Bull Salzburg (0: 4) SK Rapid Wien (0: 1) and FK Austria Wien (0: 1) to lose on purpose. For example, a Kapfenberg defender should have received 200,000 euros from an intermediary.

Switzerland

In Switzerland , 22 Challenge League matches and six test matches were affected. Attempts to manipulate Super League games should have been at least one, but the addressed player reported the attempted bribe to the association. Two suspects were arrested.

Suspicion of games by FC Thun

The federal prosecutor's office suspected players of FC Thun to have manipulated the game against Yverdon Sport FC on April 26, 2009. The suspicion was that FC Thun should lose the game by four goals difference, and the game actually ended 5: 1. The Thun striker Pape Omar Fayé was questioned by the police on suspicion in the week before the cup game against Winterthur (November 22, 2009) and then suspended from the club. Since a striker can hardly concede five goals from his playing position, other players involved were suspected, who are said to have received several 10,000 euros together.

Suspicion against games of FC Gossau

The FC Gossau suffered at the end of the 2008/09 season, a remarkable series of defeats. The federal public prosecutor's office specifically suspected FC Gossaus players of manipulating the games against FC Locarno on May 24, 2009 and against Servette FC Genève . FC Gossau should lose the game against Locarno by at least four goals difference and the game actually ended 0: 4. The then goalkeeper of Gossau, Darko Damjanovic, was supposed to be questioned by the police, but was in hiding. The Gossau midfielder Mario Bigoni publicly stated that a game last season was "not clean" and he received an offer from a teammate. Although it was not known whether Bigoni would accept the offer, he was suspended from his club. Tens of thousands of euros are also said to have flowed to Gossau, 20,000 for the game against Locarno alone. On October 26, 2011, the police confirmed that Bigoni had been found dead three days earlier in the Old Rhine near Rheineck.

Test matches

The Bosnian club NK Travnik completed a training camp in Switzerland in summer 2009 and played test matches against the clubs Neuchâtel Xamax (2: 3), Servette FC Genève (1: 3) and FC Sion (1: 4). It became known that a betting syndicate from Asia had contributed financially to the costs of the training camp. The president of FC Sion, Christian Constantin , publicly suspected that the Bosnians let FC Sion win.

China

The Chinese police arrested a total of 16 people on November 25, 2009 in the course of the international investigation into the betting scandal, including twelve club members and four high-ranking football officials (including former association vice-president Yang Xu).

Other states

On November 26, 2009, UEFA named five more football clubs that are suspected of being tampered with. The clubs were the two Albanian clubs KF Tirana and KS Vllaznia Shkodra , FC Dinaburg from Latvia, NK Interblock Ljubljana from Slovenia and Honvéd Budapest from Hungary. A total of seven matches to qualify for the Champions League or the Europa League are said to have been manipulated. According to UEFA, three referees and one UEFA official may also be involved in the betting scandal.

Affected games in other European countries according to the Bochum public prosecutor's office
several games of the 1st and 2nd league
UEFA information on 7 rigged games
2nd round of qualification for the Champions League
  • Stabaek IF - KF Tirana (4-0 on July 21, 2009)
2nd round of qualification for the Europa League
  • SK Rapid Wien - KS Vllaznia Shkodra (5-0 on July 16, 2009)
  • Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv - FC Dinaburg (4-0 on July 16, 2009)
  • KS Vllaznia Shkodra - SK Rapid Vienna (0: 3 on July 23, 2009)
  • FC Dinaburg - Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv (0-1 on July 23, 2009)
3rd round of qualification for the Europa League
  • Fenerbahce Istanbul - Honvéd Budapest (5-1 on July 30, 2009)
  • NK Interblock Ljubljana - Metalurg Donetsk (0: 3 on August 6, 2009)

Betting scandal in Italy

Regardless of the investigation by the Bochum public prosecutor, another betting scandal became public in Italy on November 23, 2009. The president of the Italian football club Potenza Sport Club , Giuseppe Postiglione, as well as eight other officials (including Antonio Lopiano and Antonio De Angelis) of the third division club of the Lega Pro Prima Divisione and Antonio Possidente, a member of the Mafia , were arrested by the Carabinieri in connection with manipulations of Arrested playing football. The investigation, which has been ongoing for several months, currently concerns a Serie B game in the 2007/08 season and seven Lega Pro Prima Divisione games in the 2008/09 season.

Legal processing

On April 14, 2011, the 13th criminal chamber of the Bochum Regional Court imposed prison sentences of three years and eight months and three years and eleven months, respectively, against the gambler Tuna A. and the betting shop operator Stevan R. for fraudulent activities and gang fraud. For fraud, betting shop operator Nürretin G. received a three-year prison sentence. Tuna A. and Nürretin G. had already served 13 months of their sentences in custody. All three defendants had confessed in the course of the trial to have manipulated 32 games and bribed players.

In May 2011 Ante Sapina was sentenced to five and a half years in prison by the Bochum regional court . Marijo Cvrtak was also sentenced to five and a half years in prison and Dragan M. was given a suspended sentence of one year and six months.

In December 2012, the Federal Court of Justice declared the previous judgments against Sapina and an accomplice to be invalid and overturned them.

In March 2013, Milan Sapina was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment without parole by the Bochum Regional Court; the sentence was largely overturned in March 2014 and a four-month prison term remained.

In April 2014 Ante Sapina was sentenced to five years in prison by the Bochum regional court.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Mike Glindmeier, Johannes Korge: Huge betting scandal shakes European football. In: Spiegel Online , November 20, 2009.
  2. ↑ Martina Leingruber: Football: The greatest fraud scandal of all time. In: Die Presse , November 20, 2009.
  3. ↑ The goals bought by professional footballers. ( Memento from November 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 20, 2009.
  4. ↑ Gregor Derichs: Worse than Hoyzer. In Focus Online , November 20, 2009.
  5. ↑ Oliver Müller: Betting scandal: Biggest fraud in football history. In: Die Welt , November 21, 2009.
  6. ↑ Michael Wulzinger: Uefa suspends Ukrainian referee, Sandhausen dismisses Schuon. In: Spiegel Online , November 30, 2009.
  7. ↑ a b c Explanation of the public prosecutor's office in full. In: Spiegel Online , November 20, 2009.
  8. ^ Christian Bergmann, Frank Wolfgang Sonntag: Even more second division games manipulated. In: MDR ( PDF ; 51 kB).
  9. ↑ DFB referees in the sights of the investigators. In: Spiegel Online , November 21, 2009.
  10. ↑ Football betting scandal: basketball players in custody. In: Potsdam Latest News , November 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Michael Ashelm: Football professionals in the gambling environment. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 3, 2010.
  12. ↑ DFB referee in the sights of the investigators. In: Focus Online , November 21, 2009.
  13. ↑ SSV Ulm announces three players. In: Focus Online , November 27, 2009.
  14. ↑ Arrests - Verl suspends players. ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , November 24, 2009.
  15. ↑ Betting scandal: First player confession. In: Focus Online , November 27, 2009.
  16. ↑ Rapid games involved in betting scandal. , In: Der Standard , November 25, 2009.
  17. ↑ a b betting scandal: Kapfenberg is said to have manipulated games.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Today , March 4, 2011; Retrieved March 5, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.fnp.de  
  18. ↑ a b Stephan Roth: Even Super League players targeted by betting fraudsters. In: Basler Zeitung , November 21, 2009.
  19. ↑ Alexander Wäfler: "Faye still belongs to our Thun family" In: Berner Zeitung , November 25, 2009.
  20. ↑ Thun bans Omar Faye for today's game In: Basler Zeitung , November 22, 2009.
  21. ↑ Ex-FC Gossau player Bigoni disappeared. In: Vorarlberg Online , October 14, 2011.
  22. ↑ Gossau-Spieler admits that the game was fooled. In: Basler Zeitung , November 23, 2009.
  23. ↑ Marco Kamber: Is Mario Bigoni dead? In: Tagblatt , October 24, 2011.
  24. ↑ Footballer Mario Bigoni found dead. In: ORF , October 26, 2011.
  25. ↑ Peter M. Birrer: Betting scandal: "There will still be some surprises". In: Basler Zeitung , November 23, 2009.
  26. ↑ a b betting scandal: first arrests in China. In: Welt Online , November 26, 2009.
  27. ↑ Betting scandal in Italy: nine arrests. In: Focus-Online from November 23, 2009
  28. ↑ C. Zunino: Minacce e calcio scommesse arrestato presidente ragazzino. In: La Repubblica of November 23, 2009
  29. ↑ Long prison sentences for three betting fraudsters  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. NWZ Online, April 15, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nwzonline.de  
  30. ↑ Long prison sentences against Ante Sapina and Marijo C.
  31. ↑ Manipulation in football: Trial against competitor Sapina is being renegotiated at spiegel.de, December 20, 2012 (accessed December 20, 2012).
  32. ↑ http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/583400/artikel_wettskandal_haftstrafe-fuer-milan-sapina.html
  33. ↑ Rafael Buschmann: Betting fraud: BGH overturns judgment against Milan Sapina. In: Spiegel Online . April 5, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  34. ↑ Mitigation of sentences for betting fraudsters Sapina. April 14, 2014