Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday denied the UEFA Cup was won dishonestly and are considering legal action against media that reported a Russian criminal gang arrested in Spain issued bribes.
The gang said they used tens of millions of euros in bribes to “buy” the trophy won by Zenit St Petersburg last season, beating Scotland’s Rangers 2-0 in the May final.
Zenit had also beaten favorites Bayern Munich 4-0 in their semi-final second leg match.
The Russian club said on their Web site: “The play performed by Zenit footballers in the matches against Rangers and Bayern gave the best possible proof that those wins were achieved in honest and uncompromising style. The rumors published in those media sources defame all of the named clubs.”
The statement added Zenit lawyers were studying the media coverage and would be deciding whether to take legal action to defend the club’s reputation.
The newspaper ABC said Gennadios Petrov, head of a powerful Russian underworld gang, and one of his cohorts said they used between 20 million euros (US$28 million) and 40 million euros to “buy” the semi-final and the final, according to a telephone conversation intercepted by Spanish police.
Spanish police launched an investigation, but have been unable to determine if the gang had contacted players and officials from Bayern and Rangers or if the two were merely bragging.
The newspaper El Pais said that Petrov, in a taped telephone conversation, “said that 50 million had been paid to Bayern. He did not say if it was dollars, euros or roubles, but that the figure was correct.”
A judicial source and the interior ministry decline to comment on “an ongoing investigation.”
UEFA, european soccer’s governing body, said it planned to investigate.
“When there are rumors of this type, our members of the disciplinary committee handle them and we are going to look at this closely,” UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said.
In Germany, Bayern Munich said in a statement it had “no knowledge of such suspicions. We are going to try and obtain all the information about this affair.”
El Pais said top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon had asked German prosecutors to help with an investigation.
It was Garzon who in June ordered the police operation that led to the arrest of around 20 people, including Petrov, and broke up the Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya gang, one of the largest Russian underworld networks in the world.
Authorities also froze bank accounts containing a total of 12 million euros.
The gang, which has its origins in St Petersburg, used Spain as a base for its top leaders and for money-laundering its gains from illegal activities in Russia and other former Soviet states, according to police.
It was not clear from the reports how the gang planned to benefit from offering the bribes.
But El Pais said the investigation showed that Petrov, who was arrested at a luxurious villa in Majorca, “had interests in Zenit” and in soccer in general.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
RSS