SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Slovak football has been rocked this weekend by allegations concerning four active and three former Slovakian professional football players regarding football match fixing and having ties with Asian-based match fixing groups. This past weekend saw the arrest of 16 people with ties in Slovak football in a Slovak and Czech police joint task-force to stop corruption in regional sports.
Slovak former football players identified by police only as Ivan Ž., Róbert R. and Marián D. were accused of bribery, and four active players of the DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda football team, Michal D., Ivan H., Tomáš H. and Marek B. were accused of accepting bribes, according to Slovak police. Slovak media sources have named the players as Ivan Žiga, Róbert Rák and Marián Dirnbach and DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda suspended Michal Dian, Ivan Hodúr, Tomáš Huber and Marek Božoň. Hodúr has twice capped for the Slovakian national football team.
Slovak Police have made public that the arrested individuals face charges of match fixing at least twenty Slovak and Czech Republic league games. The Group of players are thought to have taken €210,000 to bribe players and officials. Betting spreads on these fixed games have totaled no less than €50,000. Police began to move with the arrests after two active unnamed players had pleaded guilty to match fixing allegations and decided to cooperate with Slovak police and name leaders in the match-fixing gang.
The Slovak Football Association (SFZ), which cooperated with the police during the investigation, commented on the match fixing allegations
“We are glad that police, in cooperation with Slovak Football Association representatives, tackled the [problem of corruption] and their job has brought the first results. Even if it currently means negative publicity for football, it is a positive signal for the future that football wants to approach transparently and with a fair play spirit. The SFZ will do whatever it takes to clean corruption in all Slovakian Football leagues”.
