Brno - Professional football is not a private activity where bribes could be tolerated. It is in a public interest to denounce and punish corruption on any level of the Czech football.
That's the latest message of the Supreme Court towards corruption in football.
Paradoxically, it came with a only relatively minor offence, which has nothing to do with the greatest Czech football premier league (Gambrinus liga) corruption scandal that erupted a few years ago.
The court approved the penalty given by municipal and regional courts in Brno to a former office holder from southern Moravia Libor Mikláš, who, found guilty, received a two months probation and is barred from any activity involving football for four years.
Mikláš was tried for attempts to influence results of a youth league match.
For a bottle of wine?
"If the society was to tolerate bribes given to referees in order to influence football matches whose result thus wouldn't depend on the skills of football players, the reputation of footabll would be tarnished ," informed Jiří Horák who presided the Supreme Court´s Senate.
Mikláš had his phone tapped by the police because of an information provided anonymously by a group of referees. It is not known what was supposed to be the bribe, the court speculated it was a bottle of wine.
Mikláš defended himself by stressing that the phone tapping allegedly doesn't prove he was offered a bribe. However, he above all asserted that football is a private affair the state may not interfere with, since its inner rules are introduced by civic associations (football clubs), not by the state.
Not a private affair
"The courts haven't taken in account whether giving a bribe to a football match referee is discordant with internal regulations. It cannot be assumed that every citizen is interested in football match results," stated Mikláš in his appeal that was however refused by the Supreme Court.
"We cannot agree with the statement that in the case violating the fair play match, it still concerns only private interests of a limited group of persons," ruled the judges.
How about children?
The judges ruled this verdict at the end of the last year but it has been published online only recently.
According to the Supreme Court, referees' objectivity is one of the fundamental prerequisite of sports, thus their work is of public interest. It was also reminded that corruption in football has had a bad impact on children doing sports.
"If sport matches' outcomes were to be independent on their participants' skills, it would have destructive effects on the society's will to do sports," informed the court.
