Prague - A huge scandal is unfolding in Czech soccer. On September 11, shortly after the Czech national team lost its last chance to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Czech police launched a series of arrests.
Anti-corruption police unit spokesman Jaroslav Ibehej confirmed that the raid was taking place and that it was related to match-fixing. "Twelve people have been arrested so far in different parts of the Czech Republic, and another 20 people were asked to give an explanation. At the same time, policemen searched 15 houses and other facilities," said Ibehej, adding that the operation was conducted jointly with Slovak policemen.
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The arrested are current and former soccer players from different divisions. All of them have been charged with corruption.
The raid was the outcome of cooperation between police and the Czech soccer association FACR. The association has worked with police for the past 11 months, said FACR deputy chairman Roman Berbr, adding that only four FACR officials knew about the operation.
"In October last year we obtained undeniable evidence that match-fixing was taking place in a junior league. We passed the information to police," said Berber. The FACR allegedly used the Sportsradar company's fraud detecting services.
"Police wiretapped several people, that is how it started," Czech Internet newspaper Aktualne.cz learned from a source.
The Czech website Isport.cz broke the story yesterday, reporting that a high number of soccer players from different divisions were arrested, including some from the top division.
Police president Martin Cervicek denied the report that he has already consulted the issue with FACR chairman Miroslav Pelta yet. "That is not true, I am in Bosnia-Herzegovina now, so we haven't met. But I am aware of that operation conducted by the anti-corruption police unit, it has been taking place since morning hours," Cervicek told Aktualne.cz.
Aktualne.cz has learned from Frantisek Hrdlicka, director of the top division's Teplice club, that police have interrogated several players of the club. "I am glad police have started to investigate it and these things will get cleaned up," said Hrdlicka.
