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Dinamo-Lyon game 'not suspicious' - watchdog
Source: Shanghai Daily |
December 9, 2011, Friday
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Online Edition
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A probe into Lyon's shock 7-1 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb has not revealed any irregularities, France's betting watchdog said yesterday.
France's online gaming authority ARJEL opened their investigation after the match in Zagreb on Wednesday night, which featured the fastest ever hat-trick in the Champions League and gave the French side a surprise ticket to the last 16 at the expense of Dutch side Ajax.
It was a remarkable rescue act for Lyon, who went into their final Group D game three points behind Ajax and needing to make up a goal difference of seven if they were to reach the knockout rounds.
French international striker Bafetimbi Gomis was the star of the show, scoring four goals, including the fastest ever triple in the competition.
But a number of the goals were down to glaring defensive and goalkeeping errors.
Real Madrid and Lyon qualified for the last 16, while Ajax took third place in the group and will play in the Europa League.
The betting regulator said that after the match they "proceeded to examine betting patterns in the French market. In the light of analyses carried out today by the French regulator, no particular anomaly was recorded."
However, ARJEL president Jean-Francois Vilotte called on European football's governing body UEFA to examine what happened in other markets.
"It's important that UEFA look at what happened in other markets," Vilotte told AFP. "Either it's a rumour (of match fixing) and it has to be killed straight away, or it has to be investigated immediately."
UEFA said that they had detected nothing supicious surrounding the match.
"UEFA is aware and has taken note of the media coverage of the matches played yesterday and the different allegations which have appeared in the press," the organisation said in a statement.
"We have established a system for fraud detection ... which examines 29,000 matches per season and uses the data of more that 400 betting organisations.
"For the moment this system has shown no illegal betting movement to justify an investigation."
Madrid-based sports daily AS said Lyon's victory was "under a cloud of suspicion", pointing out that the French team scored six times in a half-hour spell and adding that there had been "a strange gesture of complicity".
The French team defended their "incredible exploit," while the Croatian club described the speculation as "scandalous and malicious".
Ajax coach Frank de Boer refused to be drawn into the controversy.
"I don't want to talk too much about the Lyon result," he said.
"I can only say it was striking. But if there were strange things going on, you have to prove it."
However, Ajax director Martin Sturkenboom revealed later yesterday that they would ask UEFA to investigate.
"We want UEFA to react," said Sturkenboom. "We're calling for explanations.
"It might not lead to anything, but at least we will have done something. Not doing so would be a mistake."
Dinamo sacked manager Krunoslav Jurcic within an hour of the game as the team finished without a point after conceding 22 goals over six matches -- also a record since the Champions League competition started in 1992.
A 7-1 victory is one of the largest winning margins since the creation of the Champions League.
In an away game, only Marseille had previously achieved such a result -- winning 7-0 at Slovak side MSK Zilina in 2010.
European football has been hit by a number of corruption scandals in recent years, including in Italy, where Juventus were stripped of two Serie A league titles.
Marseille won the Champions League in 1993 but the gloss was knocked off that achievement when it emerged that their president, Bernard Tapie, had bribed Valenciennes into throwing a league game in order to spare his players for the final against AC Milan.
Marseille were stripped of the French title that season and barred from defending their European crown the following year.
-AFP
France's online gaming authority ARJEL opened their investigation after the match in Zagreb on Wednesday night, which featured the fastest ever hat-trick in the Champions League and gave the French side a surprise ticket to the last 16 at the expense of Dutch side Ajax.
It was a remarkable rescue act for Lyon, who went into their final Group D game three points behind Ajax and needing to make up a goal difference of seven if they were to reach the knockout rounds.
French international striker Bafetimbi Gomis was the star of the show, scoring four goals, including the fastest ever triple in the competition.
But a number of the goals were down to glaring defensive and goalkeeping errors.
Real Madrid and Lyon qualified for the last 16, while Ajax took third place in the group and will play in the Europa League.
The betting regulator said that after the match they "proceeded to examine betting patterns in the French market. In the light of analyses carried out today by the French regulator, no particular anomaly was recorded."
However, ARJEL president Jean-Francois Vilotte called on European football's governing body UEFA to examine what happened in other markets.
"It's important that UEFA look at what happened in other markets," Vilotte told AFP. "Either it's a rumour (of match fixing) and it has to be killed straight away, or it has to be investigated immediately."
UEFA said that they had detected nothing supicious surrounding the match.
"UEFA is aware and has taken note of the media coverage of the matches played yesterday and the different allegations which have appeared in the press," the organisation said in a statement.
"We have established a system for fraud detection ... which examines 29,000 matches per season and uses the data of more that 400 betting organisations.
"For the moment this system has shown no illegal betting movement to justify an investigation."
Madrid-based sports daily AS said Lyon's victory was "under a cloud of suspicion", pointing out that the French team scored six times in a half-hour spell and adding that there had been "a strange gesture of complicity".
The French team defended their "incredible exploit," while the Croatian club described the speculation as "scandalous and malicious".
Ajax coach Frank de Boer refused to be drawn into the controversy.
"I don't want to talk too much about the Lyon result," he said.
"I can only say it was striking. But if there were strange things going on, you have to prove it."
However, Ajax director Martin Sturkenboom revealed later yesterday that they would ask UEFA to investigate.
"We want UEFA to react," said Sturkenboom. "We're calling for explanations.
"It might not lead to anything, but at least we will have done something. Not doing so would be a mistake."
Dinamo sacked manager Krunoslav Jurcic within an hour of the game as the team finished without a point after conceding 22 goals over six matches -- also a record since the Champions League competition started in 1992.
A 7-1 victory is one of the largest winning margins since the creation of the Champions League.
In an away game, only Marseille had previously achieved such a result -- winning 7-0 at Slovak side MSK Zilina in 2010.
European football has been hit by a number of corruption scandals in recent years, including in Italy, where Juventus were stripped of two Serie A league titles.
Marseille won the Champions League in 1993 but the gloss was knocked off that achievement when it emerged that their president, Bernard Tapie, had bribed Valenciennes into throwing a league game in order to spare his players for the final against AC Milan.
Marseille were stripped of the French title that season and barred from defending their European crown the following year.
-AFP
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