Seven European club matches, including one Champions League qualifier, are under investigation after last week’s exposure of a match-fixing ring, UEFA said on Wednesday.
“From the original list of around 40 fixtures in Europe that were considered suspicious in terms of results, UEFA is today further investigating seven European club competition fixtures under its jurisdiction in more detail,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “The five clubs involved are KF Tirana [Albania], FC Dinaburg [Latvia], KS Vllaznia [Albania], NK IB Ljubljana [Slovenia] and Budapest Honved [Hungary].”
German police said on Friday that they had dismantled a gang with more than 200 suspected members operating in nine European leagues.
Wednesday’s announcement came after a meeting with the nine national associations who were named by police as having domestic matches under investigation.
The matches were played in July and August — one in the Champions League second qualifying round, four in the Europa League second qualifying round and two in the Europa League third qualifying round.
“Irrespective of the above matches, UEFA is today also opening its own investigation into the possible involvement of three referees and one other individual connected to UEFA, in the match fixing,” the statement said. “Contrary to media reports, there is no suspicion or investigation into any UEFA administration staff. UEFA wishes to stress that it has been cooperating fully with the German police and authorities on the case and indeed, following a request from the German police for information on a number of matches, UEFA was able to assist thanks to its betting fraud detection system.”
“UEFA will file criminal complaints, together with the relevant national associations, as soon as possible against clubs, officials and/or players in those countries concerned,” the statement said.
The seven games were:
• Stabaek IF v KF Tirana (July 21, Champions League second qualifying round)
• Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv v FC Dinaburg (July 16, Europa League second qualifying round)
• FC Dinaburg v Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv (July 23, Europa League second qualifying round)
• KS Vllaznia v Rapid Vienna (July 23, Europa League second qualifying round)
• Rapid Vienna v KS Vllaznia (July 16, Europa League second qualifying round)
• NH IK Ljubljana v Metalurg Donetsk (Aug. 6, Europa League third qualifying round)
• Fenerbahce v Honved (July 30, Europa League third qualifying round)
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum on Sunday combined for 27 points as Shaquille O’Neal’s “Team Shaq” cruised to victory in the new-look NBA All-Star game in San Francisco. Curry, playing on his home court at Golden State’s Chase Center, reeled off a string of trademark three-pointers to help his star-studded lineup coast to a 41-25 victory over Charles Barkley’s “Team Chuck.” Boston Celtics star Tatum finished with 15 points after delivering a dominant performance in a starting lineup that also included Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and James Harden. Team Shaq’s preparations for the game had been dealt a blow shortly before tip-off when
RSS