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Friday, 19.04.2024, 23:51
Football Federation looking into match-fixing claims following Winter Cup game between Babite and Suduva
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Babite's next Winter Cup match against the Lithuanian club Utenis has been postponed.
In the controversial Winter Cup match last Thursday, Babite lost 1:3 (0:2), conceding the first goal after a series of strange defensive mistakes and the second goal off a penalty kick.
Right after the start of the match, rumors began to swirl on social networks about unusual changes in odds, which is the first indicator that the match may have been fixed. A video from the match shows that, when Suduva is attacking to score the first goal, one of Babite players is busy tying his shoelaces, while Babite goalkeeper and one of the defenders make errors that are very hard to explain. Close to the end of the first half, one of Babite players committed a foul and the referee awarded a penalty kick to Suduva, which was successfully converted.
"The matter is being investigated by the Football Federation, and we decided to postpone the next Babite match pending the investigation," Schlegl told LETA. He declined to say what information had been received, except that it had come from a foreign company supervising bookmaker operators.
Schlegl hopes that investigation will be completed by the end of the week.
The investigation is overseen by the Football Federation's Secretary General Janis Mezeckis, who though is currently attending a meeting of FIFA national federations' heads in Qatar. Mezeckis will return to Latvia on Friday, and further information about the case could be released at the beginning of next week.
As reported, this past January the State Police brought charges against two persons in a 2014 football match-fixing case, including Olegs Gavrilovs, the former president of the Daugavpils Dinaburg football club. According to information obtained by LETA, the other person facing prosecution in the match-fixing case is the football club's technical director Jevgenijs Klopovs.
The Winter Cup is a pre-season tournament that this year includes, besides eight Latvian Higher League clubs, also three football clubs from Lithuania and Estonia.
LETA also reported, Jurmala Spartaks triumphed in the Latvian Football League last season.
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